Initiation of a Study to Assess and Characterize the 
Feeding Habits, Food Preferences, and Feeding Areas of 
Manatees in the Hobe Sound/Riviera Beach Area of Florida 
To assure the continued existence and well-being of 
manatee populations in Florida, breeding areas, feeding 
areas, and other areas of biological importance must be 
protected and human-caused mortalities and injuries must be 
reduced. Unfortunately, habitat requirements and use patterns 
of manatees are not well documented, and all areas of special 
biological importance to manatees have not been identified. 
Furthermore, standardized methods and procedures for identifying, 
characterizing, and monitoring important manatee habitats 
have not yet been developed. This study was designed to 
develop and evaluate methods and procedures for identifying, 
characterizing, and monitoring essential manatee habitats. 
The Hobe Sound/Riviera Beach area includes extensive grassbeds 
which are used by manatees that congegrate in the warm water 
effluent from the Riviera Beach Power Plant during winter 
cold periods, and available information suggests that dumping, 
dredging, and other human activities may be affecting the 
grassbeds. A need exists, therefore, to characterize and 
monitor the grassbeds and to determine their importance 
relative to the Hobe Sound/Riviera Beach manatee population, 
as well as to develop methods and procedures for doing so. 
Work began in October 1980, and the Fish and Wildlife Service 
intends to continue to support the research until the desired 
information has been acquired. 
Law Enforcement Workshops 
(Florida Department of Natural Resources) 
Manatees are afforded protection under a variety of 
State and Federal laws, and all officers in the Florida 
Marine Patrol are deputized to take enforcement actions 
pursuant to Federal statutes such as the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act as well as the 
State of Florida's Manatee Sanctuary Act. The Commission, 
recognizing that fully effective officers must understand 
applicable law and the possible biological consequences of 
harassment, poaching, vandalism, and other causes of mortality 
and injury, contracted with the Department of Natural Resources' 
Florida Marine Patrol to convene a series of eight regional 
training workshops, under contract to the Commission, to 
review: applicable State and Federal laws; types of activities 
for which warnings or citations can be issued; ways of 
achieving optimum cooperation and effectiveness among law 
