Feds expected to remove Florida manatees from endangered species list

Federal officials will likely announce plans today to remove Florida's manatee, the lumbering icon that came to represent the fight to save the state's vulnerable wildlife, from the endangered species list.

Despite a record number of deaths in recent years, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials now believe a population estimated at just over 6,000 should be reclassified as simply threatened.

A press conference is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today at the Miami Seaquarium

The decision comes under mounting pressure from developers and the boating industry who have long argued that low speed zones and other measures are too strict. Last year, the conservative Pacific Legal Fund sued federal officials after petitioning for the removal in 2012.

But conservationists, who bitterly fought the change, say the move directly contradicts the agency's plan to save the manatees by not relying on population counts.

"Between 2010 and 2013 the population went backwards and they're not even talking about that," said Pat Rose, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club. "To suggest the threats are controlled is just not the way to approach it."

The recovery plan said success would not be determined by "how many manatees exist" but how well actions keep the gentle sea cows from harm. Between 2010 and 2013, more than 2,400 manatees were killed, or nearly half the population counted last year.

Annual aerial counts are also widely regarded as incomplete, depending on both weather conditions and manatees willingness to surface.

Manatees, first protected at the turn of the century, have long served as a measure of how well booming Florida co-existed with its fragile wildlife. With no natural predators, their biggest threats came chiefly from human activity: pioneers slaughtered them for hides and modern-day boaters ran them down by the hundreds.

Their numbers started to climb after a 2001 lawsuit by the Save the Manatee Club, co-founded by Sen. Bob Graham and Jimmy Buffett in 1981, forced better boating regulations and other measures. In 2007, after counts showed the number above 3,000 federal managers considered down-listing manatees but efforts stalled.

But the record number of deaths in recent years suspended efforts.

Conservationist also fear that with stepped up development in Florida and efforts to reduce carbon at power plants, manatees that mostly winter in Central Florida could lose habitat.

"We'll see what they actually come out with today, but the literal pent up demand from recession and high gas prices, that lid is off," Rose said.

While federal officials have relied on counts and models to predict the success of manatees, those studies don't always get it right, conservationists say. In a 2013 report from U.S. Geological Survey, ecologist Michael Runge created a model projecting expected populations over the next century but did not include recent deaths. The model also failed to incorporate changes linked to climate change or water quality. Manatees are particularly sensitive to red tide and algae blooms can wipe out the seagrass beds where they graze.

In a 2014 response to the down listing, the Save the Manatee Club also raised concerns about the state's ability to protect manatees: state environmental enforcement cases fell by 68 percent in 2013, the Department of Environmental Protection has been drastically reduced and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission has fallen behind on its management plan including reviews in the Keys and in Collier, Volusia and Indian and River counties. Even federal wildlife officials ruled a 2007 recovery plan outdated but have yet to revise it.

This story was originally published January 7, 2016 at 10:34 AM with the headline "Feds expected to remove Florida manatees from endangered species list ."