FWS Contemplates Moving Manatees to Endangered List, Sparks Debate

The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced Tuesday it will begin reviewing the status of Florida's manatee, under pressure from boating activists, contemplating whether to move it from "endangered" to "threatened."

The agency said the review will include a 60-day comment period seeking public input on the West Indian manatee - which includes the Florida manatee - even though conservationists note that the beloved "sea cow" suffered record losses in Florida last year.

The move follows a lawsuit filed in April on behalf of Save Crystal River Inc., an organization advocating for boaters' rights in west-central Florida waters that are known for frequent manatee sightings. Though the company insists that changing the manatees' status doesn't mean that they won't have any federal protection.

"But not changing that status - when the science says it should be changed - will undermine the credibility of environmental oversight, and that's bad news for all species and all environmental concerns," attorney Christina M. Martin said on the Save Crystal River website.

According to the FWS, an endangered species is one that is currently on the brink of extinction while a threatened species is one that is likely to become endangered sometime in the foreseeable future.

Manatees are large, slow-moving marine mammals running on average about nine feet long (3 meters) and weighing about 1,000 pounds (200 kilograms). The majority of these fuzzy creatures die from collisions with boats, even though boaters are required to move at slow or idle speeds when in manatee protection zones, according to the agency's profile of the animal. There were 830 documented manatee deaths in 2013 and 218 for the first six months of 2014.

It is unclear exactly how many manatees are roaming Florida waters because of poor visibility, but a statewide 2011 survey pegs the population around 4,800.

And even though boaters contend that there are more recoveries than losses among the manatee population, conservationists disagree.

"The population is undeniably going backwards," Patrick Rose, an aquatic biologist and executive director for the Save the Manatee Club, told Reuters.

"This is a really bad time because there is too much uncertainty, too much at risk, going forward," he said, referring to the possible change in endangered status.

Manatees have been on the endangered species list since 1967.