WaterNotes

Well, it’s official: three months into 2010 and we’re already experiencing our worst year of manatee mortality on record. I know that seems like an extremist statement, but the situation is pretty severe.  FWC’s latest press release updated the totals for mortality, seeing jumps in the three categories I last highlighted: cold stress, unrecovered, and [...]

SeaWorld released a great short video on their recent rescue of a juvenile female calf from a culvert near Satellite Beach, FL last week. The subadult was rescued for cold stress.  You can see some of the white shading, almost chalk-like, across the skin of her flipper that occurs during cold stress. What I really [...]

Duluth, Topeka, and Sarasota are all vying to be the first to host Google Fiber. Each city’s mayor has taken to somewhat dramatic demonstrations to prove their city is the best choice; in fact Sarasota’s mayor dove the shark aquarium at Mote Marine Laboratory to show his commitment. I happen to love the video clip [...]

The cold weather continues to gravely effect wildlife populations in the state of Florida, especially in the case of manatees. SeaWorld Orlando brought in another cold stressed juvenile today and Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo and the Miami Seaquarium have also been quite active in the past two weeks coordinating with Fish and Wildlife to locate, [...]

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s research institute said today that over 100 manatee carcasses were documented in Florida waters following the cold snap during the first half of January.  A full 77 of the deaths are currently attributed to cold stress with several losses of  perinatal (or newborn) calves.   This count beats last [...]

The annual synoptic aerial survey for manatees in state of Florida waters came in officially yesterday with a whopping all-time high count of the cows: 5,067!! This  is a staggering (and exciting) jump in population numbers from last year’s all-time high by over 1,200 individuals. While the survey will not be finalized (and thus truly [...]

I was probably a manatee in a past life. How do I know?  I won’t SCUBA dive into anything other than warm sauna-like conditions and I eat a lot of salads.  Ok, perhaps this isn’t the most convincing of arguments, but these marine mammals are my favorite in the world, as regular WaterNotes readers well [...]