FL - Manatee Deaths Hit New Record For January - Up 1/3 Over 2005

[hatrack]

NAPLES, Fla. — Manatee deaths jumped by a third in January compared with the same month last year, but exactly what killed half the animals remains unknown, state wildlife officials said.

Last month, 48 of the endangered animals are known to have died statewide, 12 more than in January 2005.

Half of the deaths were listed as cause unknown because the manatees' bodies were decomposed when they were retrieved, said Ken Arrison, a biologist with the state's Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab in St. Petersburg. Officials are waiting on lab test to determine if red tide, a toxic algae bloom, was involved.

Six of the manatees died due to cold stress, a cause that surprised wildlife officials because January's weather was mild, Arrison said. Others died from watercraft injuries and natural causes.

EDIT

http://www.enn.com/today.html?id=9888

[leftchick]

1. hatrack I give you so much credit

for posting the atrocities day after day. I can barely read them let alone post them. The manatees hit me in the heart. I used to live in Florida and I adore them. What is left of them. :cry:

thank you.