Lettuce will be on the menu again this year for Florida manatees as part of an effort to slow the starvation deaths of the beloved marine mammals, wildlife officials said Wednesday.
Plans are already in place to resume an experimental feeding program at a warm-water power plant near Cape Canaveral. Last year, about 202,000 pounds of lettuce was fed to manatees that gather there by the thousands when the weather turns colder.
The greater goal is to reduce pollution from agriculture, urban and sewage sources that has triggered a die-off in the seagrass beds manatees depend on for food. One water management district found that there has been a 75% drop in seagrass in the critical Indian River Lagoon since 2009. “It worked really well last year. We will continue at that site,” said Ron Mezich of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. “We hope this is never a permanent situation. We don’t want to have to feed wild populations.”The feeding program was launched last winter after a record 1,100 manatees died in 2021, mostly from starvation but also from collisions with boats. This year, through Nov. 4, 735 manatee deaths had been recorded, state statistics show.
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