MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1998 



The Fish and Wildlife Service has lead responsibil- 

 ity for the recovery of Florida manatees under the 

 Endangered Species Act and the Marine Manunal 

 Protection Act. It began a manatee research program 

 — the Sirenia Project — in the mid-1970s and, with 

 assistance from the Commission, the Service devel- 

 oped a manatee recovery plan adopted in 1980. The 

 manatee recovery plan, the first for any marine 

 mammal in U.S. waters, has been a model for such 

 plans to protect other marine mammals. The manatee 

 plan has been updated twice since then. The most 

 recent revision, adopted in 1996, identifies 126 

 recovery tasks. It was drafted by the Florida Manatee 

 Recovery Team, a team of involved agencies and 

 groups appointed by the Service to oversee and help 

 coordinate manatee recovery work, through a subcom- 

 mittee chaired by the Marine Mammal Commission's 

 representative on the team. 



A hallmark of the Service's program has been the 

 cooperative involvement of other agencies and groups 

 in carrying out needed manatee research and manage- 

 ment tasks. Of particular note in this regard has been 

 work by the state of Florida. The state, with assis- 

 tance from the Commission and the Service, dramati- 

 cally increased its manatee conservation efforts in the 

 1980s. Through establishment of a Manatee Trust 

 Fund by the state legislature in 1989, the state has 

 become the principal funding source for manatee 

 recovery activities. This fund, supported by a small 

 share of the state's annual boat registration fees, a 

 state manatee license plate, voluntary donations, and 

 other sources, has provided $3 to 4 million annually 

 in recent years for manatee recovery tasks. This has 

 enabled the state to assume lead responsibility for the 

 largest proportion of tasks identified in the recovery 

 plan. Most work in this regard has been carried out 

 by the Florida Department of Environmental Protec- 

 tion through its Bureau of Protected Species Manage- 

 ment and the Florida Marine Research Institute. 



Even with strong support from the Service and the 

 Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the 

 involvement of many other agencies and groups has 

 been essential to address the many tasks in the recov- 

 ery plan. In this regard, especially notable contribu- 

 tions have been made by the Sirenia Project, recently 

 moved to the U.S. Geological Survey, to develop 

 basic information on manatee life history and ecology; 



the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida 

 Water Management District to reduce manatee deaths 

 in flood gates and navigation locks; the U.S. Coast 

 Guard to help enforce boat speed regulations; the Save 

 the Manatee Club to help organize public involvement 

 in manatee recovery activities and to fund various 

 research and management tasks; the Manatee Techni- 

 cal Advisory Council to overview and provide advice 

 to the Department of Environmental Protection on its 

 manatee recovery activities; county governments to 

 help develop countywide boat speed regulations and to 

 prepare county manatee protection plans; the Georgia 

 Department of Natural Resources to carry out comple- 

 mentary research and management activities in Geor- 

 gia; and the Florida Power & Light Company to 

 support a long-term aerial survey program to count 

 manatees at power plant outfalls and to develop public 

 education materials. 



As discussed below, major efforts during 1998 

 included strengthening enforcement and compliance 

 with regard to boat speed zones and manatee harass- 

 ment, reexamining long-term management strategies 

 for warm- water refuges, completing a manatee die-off 

 contingency plan, and continuing to develop and 

 install new devices to prevent manatees from being 

 killed in flood gates and navigation locks. 



Boating Regulation 



Collisions with watercraft are the largest source of 

 human-related manatee mortality. As indicated in 

 Table 9, such collisions cause from one-fourth to one- 

 third of all manatee deaths each year. In addition, 

 perhaps half of all living manatees bear scars from 

 boat strikes (Figure 11). Although some watercraft- 

 related deaths are known to be caused by large ships, 

 information on the nature of wounds and location of 

 incidents indicates that a large majority are caused by 

 recreational boats. Most collisions occur unbe- 

 knownst to vessel operators, who clearly are unable to 

 reliably detect and avoid manatees. Therefore, to 

 reduce watercraft injuries and deaths, managers have 

 sought to slow or otherwise regulate vessel traffic in 

 areas where manatees are most likely to occur to 

 provide animals time to avoid oncoming boats. 



The principal effort in this regard has been in 

 response to a 1989 directive by the Florida Governor 



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