Manatee Guardians Fired

Two of the eight staff members who oversee Florida's only manatee refuge have been fired. One is a park ranger. The Trump administration's sweeping cuts to the federal workforce are impacting the threatened manatees that live in the only national refuge created specifically for them.

The employees manage the 32,000-acre Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge on Florida's Gulf Coast, which draws hundreds of thousands of annual visitors. The cuts come during peak manatee season when the animals gather by the hundreds at the park's warm-water Three Sisters Springs to fend off the cold. The staff reduction is detrimental to a team already juggling manatee rescues, permits, law enforcement, and whatever else the day might bring.

Stephen Frink, Florida underwater photographer and publisher of Alert Diver Magazine, went to Facebook to voice his disgust. "This is so stupid, and frankly evil, to strip protection from manatees that are already on the brink. They don't have two years to hope for oversight from the midterm elections. They don't have four years to wait for new national elections. Right or left . . . Who can be indifferent to the plight of our manatees without federal protections in place?"