Florida Eyes Change in Manatee Status

Florida officials are set to vote this week on a new manatee management plan that would, among other actions, change the animal's status from "endangered" to "threatened," according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

The conservation group Defenders of Wildlife warns that downlisting the manatee is both premature and based on flawed procedures for determining what qualifies a species as endangered. The organization is alerting supporters in Florida about the proposed change and urging them to express their opposition to the FWC before the vote takes place.

The FWC meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 12, through Friday, Sept. 14, at the Hilton at 333 First Street, South, in St. Petersburg.

The proposed change to the manatee's status grew out of new rules the FWC adopted in 1999 to standardize evaluation procedures for listings on the state's imperiled species list. Two years later, the FWC received a petition to reclassify the manatee under those new rules. Since then, the FWC has revised the listing rules in response to public input, but a review panel of biologists still concluded in 2005 that the manatee met only the standards for a threatened species, not an endangered one.

The panel determined that the manatee had "virtually no chance" of an 80-percent population decline over the next 60 years, which is the state's threshold for endangered species status. However, the biologists calculated that the manatee population did have a little more than 12-percent chance of dropping by half during the same time period, enough to qualify the animal for threatened status under the state's standards.

In announcing the new management plan earlier this year, Kipp Frohlich, FWC imperiled species management leader, said, "The aim of this plan is to take steps to reduce that chance to 1 percent or less. The plan provides deadline-driven objectives to ensure Florida's manatee population continues to thrive."

He added, "Reclassification will not mean less protection for Florida's manatee. The FWC is committed to seeing the manatee population continue to grow and thrive."

However, Defenders of Wildlife is criticizing the standards used to determine the manatee's newly proposed status.

"This flawed set of criteria has led to an inappropriate plan to downlist of the manatee, based not on an improvement in its conservation status, but rather on a flawed misalignment of the internationally-accepted threat criteria for Florida's categories," states a form email letter the organization is asking supporters to sign. "The result will affect the level of protection offered to species by different agencies -- as well as the private and public sectors -- across the state."

Defenders of Wildlife also warns that manatees would be harmed by the FWC's proposal to cut funding for manatee protection enforcement, rescue, rehabilitation and other programs.

According to the FWC, there are fewer than 2,500 mature adults in Florida's manatee population. While the overall population is growing in three out of four of the state's management areas, the number of manatees in southwest Florida is believed to be declining.

The manatee remains listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, "Commission Meeting & Agenda for September 2007." URL: (http://myfwc.com/commission/2007/Sept07/index.html)