The Workshop was exceedingly productive and, by the end of 



1989, the Florida Department of Natural Resources had made 

 substantial progress on digitizing base maps and entering data to 

 create a central data base. To help speed development, the 

 Commission provided further support late in 1989 to the National 

 Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help prepare base maps for the 

 system (see also Chapter X) . 



Age determination studies — An unresolved guestion 

 important for assessing the status of manatee populations in 

 Florida and elsewhere is the relationship between age and 

 survival and reproduction rates. The guestion has remained 

 unanswered because no reliable technique has been developed for 

 determining the age of manatees. The need for research on this 

 guestion was identified during the process of revising the 

 Manatee Recovery Plan. However, because of funding limitations, 

 the Fish and Wildlife Service has been unable to carry out 

 research on this guestion. 



Therefore, in 1988, the Commission supported a pilot study 

 to determine if manatee bones have detectable variations useful 

 for determining the age of individuals. The study was carried 

 out in 1989 using ear bones, ribs, mandibles, and other bones of 

 animals of known age. The final report, to be published early in 



1990, demonstrates that it is possible to obtain useful results. 

 Therefore, late in 1989, the Commission provided funds to the 

 National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to begin aging a backlog of 

 samples gathered through the manatee salvage program (see also 

 Chapter X) . 



Radio-tagging and tracking studies — One of the most 

 important and immediate needs for making informed decisions on 

 permit applications for marinas and other critical management 

 issues is better information on manatee habitat use patterns and 

 preferred habitats. To help develop this information, the Fish 

 and Wildlife Service's National Ecology Research Center pioneered 

 a successful approach for radio-tracking individual animals early 

 in the 1980s. 



The potential value of the technigue, however, has not been 

 realized because the Service's research staff has not received 

 sufficient funding to purchase equipment and services needed to 

 tag and track more than a few animals at a time. To ensure 

 tagging of a representative sample of animals in each of the more 

 or less discrete populations of manatees in Florida, the 

 Commission wrote to the Service late in 1987 recommending that 

 additional funds be provided over a five-year period to tag an 

 additional 20 animals per year. The Service responded in early 

 1988 noting that it would be unable to provide any additional 

 support in 1988. 



20 



