ORLANDO, Fla.\u2014The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this week proposed expanding habitat protections for ailing manatees, which in Florida have suffered in recent years through extraordinary habitat challenges that have left the sea cows emaciated and dying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The update to the manatee\u2019s critical habitat would be the first since the animal was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1976, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, one of three conservation groups that brought a lawsuit to pressure the federal agency to take action. Critical habitat is a legal term encompassing waterways considered vital to the manatee\u2019s recovery. The West Indian manatee, of which the Florida manatee is a subspecies, was downlisted in 2017 from endangered to threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nearly 2,000 manatees died in Florida in 2021 and 2022\u2014a two-year record. The calamity prompted wildlife agencies to go so far as to provide supplemental lettuce for starving manatees in the 156-mile Indian River Lagoon on the state\u2019s east coast, where water quality problems have led to widespread seagrass losses. Conservation groups said the deaths represented more than 20 percent of the state\u2019s population. This year more than 130 manatee calves have died in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n