Manatee Conservation In Cuba
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| Save the Manatee Club helped pay to print a poster that is being used to educate fishermen, children, and other villagers about manatees in Cuba. |
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By Anmari Alvarez Alemán
Manatees in Cuba were noted by Christopher Columbus in the 15th century. In fact, he reported “swarms” of manatees as being attracted to freshwater springs at Bahía de Cochinos (Bay of Pigs) in south Matanzas Province. Today, manatees in Cuba are a very rare species with alarming conservation problems.
Manatees have been protected in Cuba since 1901, but the lack of scientific information has limited our knowledge of the species’ population and status. More data are needed to develop management and conservation programs to improve the current manatee situation in the country.
The existing conservation strategy is oriented around environmental education and increased awareness of manatees among Cuba’s coastal residents. Workshops have been held to teach manatee survey and necropsy techniques to interested citizens. These workshops have been possible with the support of several non-governmental organizations, including Sea to Shore Alliance, the MacArthur Foundation, and the Global Environmental Fund; and the participation of Cuban institutions such as the Center for Marine Research at the University of Havana, National Enterprise for Flora and Fauna, and National Center for Protected Areas. A very important goal has been the integration and coordination of actions among institutions and centers from different sectors in the country to maximize potential protection for Cuba’s manatees.
With the help of Save the Manatee Club and Sea to Shore Alliance, we have distributed posters and other educational materials, including coloring books, stickers, and bookmarks to help raise awareness of manatees and solicit information from citizens regarding manatee sightings. In Cuba, we work with the Coast Guard, Forest-Guard, protected areas, tourism businesses, dive clubs, marinas, coastal communities, fishery bases, and other coastal contacts. Because of these materials, the information we gather about manatee sightings and mortality events increase every year. The national newspaper Granma is also writing about manatees and the threats they face in the country, which also helps spread awareness.
As part of the research and monitoring strategy, we are working on the development of a manatee stranding and sighting network around Cuba. The main causes of death recorded so far are poaching and entanglement in trawl nets. These findings have been used to support improvements in fishery regulations, like the complete eradication of the trawl nets in the Cuban nearshore waters. Manatee sightings are mostly of solitary individuals and have been reported from marinas, scuba diving sites, oil industry developments, bays, and other nearshore coastal areas.
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| Anmari (at left) speaks to school children in Cuba about manatees. Save the Manatee Club produced coloring and activity books in Spanish so they could be distributed to the children. (Photo by Dorka Cobian) |
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Current studies seek to determine relative occurrence or abundance for manatees, study manatee behavior, and understand manatee habitat use in select areas of Cuba. The implementation of a standardized monitoring program in Cuba offers essential information to support manatee management plans and strengthens the conservation process throughout the island. One important outcome from the work has been the collection of samples for the genetic studies implemented by the Center for Marine Research and the U.S. Geological Survey’s Sirenia Project.
In 2012, we started a program for manatee captures, health assessment, and tagging in order to assess patterns of manatee movements and habitat use. The methodologies we used were similar to those used in Florida and Belize by other manatee studies. We captured and evaluated the health of six animals: three adult females, one juvenile female, and two male calves. We recorded body measurements, temperature, respiratory and heart rate; assessed body condition; implanted PIT-TAGs (Passive Integrated Transponders -- similar to microchips used for dogs and cats); and collected blood, fecal, and urine for future analysis. Two manatees were released with radio-satellite tags and are being monitored by Cuban researchers from the Center for Marine Research at the University of Havana, and specialists from Sea to Shore Alliance. The plan is to continue and strengthen the capture program in the future and provide recommendation for the management of manatees and their habitats in Cuba.
The combination of this research project, the political will of the Cuban government, and the strong support provided from international institutions like Sea to Shore Alliance together with the outreach efforts made possible by Save the Manatee Club, give us hope for the future of Cuba’s manatees.
Anmari Alvarez Alemán is a research scientist at the Center for Marine Research at the University of Havana, Cuba, focused on a manatee conservation project and an associate research scientist for U.S.-based Sea to Shore Alliance. Save the Manatee Club first started working with Anmari in December 2011.
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| Anmari (center, in blue) watches as one of the manatee public awareness posters is put up. (Photo by Dorka Cobian) |
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| Three manatees spotted swimming in Cuban waters. (Photo courtesy Archive of the Center for Marine
Research) |
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Manatíes del Caribe
Click the image at left or the following link to get Manatíes del Caribe, the coloring and activity book in Spanish that Save the Manatee Club produced. You can download and print it and get additional web pages in Spanish that were created to complement the coloring book: Información Sobre
los Manatíes and Niños en Acción. |
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