Florida Manatee Deaths Down As Feds Consider Reclassifying ‘Endangered’ Animal

Florida manatee populations are trending upward, meaning the warm-water mammal — long-considered endangered — could be in Florida waters for years to come.

Manatee mortality rates are on track to be down 54 percent in 2014 compared with 2013, according to figures from Florida Fish and Wildlife.

“The number of recorded manatee deaths is down for the first six months of this year compared to last year,” spokesperson Brandon Basino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Fish Institute tells Patch.

But Basino says it’s too soon to say if the promising numbers are a trend.

The figures come as the federal government is considering reclassifying the animal, also known as a sea cow, off of the Federal Endangered Species List.

The U.S. Interior Department is considering a petition to reclassify the West Indian manatee (Scientific name Trichechus manatus) finding “substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that the petitioned action may be warranted.”

“You can’t base a species’ recovery on just a snapshot,” Katie Tripp of the manatee conservation group Save the Manatee Club told The Tampa Tribune.

Tripp says climate change, habitat loss, and loss of manatee’s sea grass food source still pose dangers to the animal.

Manatees were federally classified as “endangered” in 1967 after a number boating accidents in and around Florida waters killed droves of the docile mammals.