Released: January 2000

As boat collisions and habitat destruction cause the Florida manatee to sink further toward extinction, Save the Manatee Club, et al., a national coalition of 19 environmental and animal protection groups, have filed two federal lawsuits demanding sweeping changes in the business-as-usual attitude of the federal and the Florida state government to animals languishing on the endangered species list.

Named as defendants in the first suit in Washington are the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). A second federal suit in Tallahassee will be filed against the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC). Both suits charge these agencies with failing to protect Florida’s endangered manatee population. Manatees are listed as endangered under provisions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Only an estimated 2,400 survive in the wild in Florida’s coastal waters.

Plaintiffs in the federal lawsuits include Save the Manatee Club, The Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, International Wildlife Coalition, U.S. Public Interest Research Group, the Sierra Club, Animal Welfare Institute, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Citizens Association of Bonita Beach, Responsible Growth Management Coalition, Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, Florida Audubon Society, Florida Public Interest Research Group, Sanibel-Captiva Audubon Society, Audubon Society of Southwest Florida, Inc., Biscayne Bay Foundation, Florida Defenders of the Environment (Washington, DC, suit only), Florida Wildlife Federation (FL suit only), and the Pegasus Foundation. The Washington law firm of Meyer and Glitzenstein and Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund serve as legal counsel to the coalition.

"We are calling for the federal government and the State of Florida to implement and enforce the existing laws protecting the manatees and their habitat," said Dr. Fran Stallings, co-chair of the board of directors of Save the Mantee Club of Maitland, Florida.

At stake, says the coalition, is the continued existence of the gentle marine mammals native to Florida’s warm coastal waters.

Although Florida (West Indian) manatees are protected under the ESA, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA), and the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act (FMSA), manatee mortalities continue to rise. In 1998, 231 manatees died. This past year, 268 died, the second highest recorded toll since figures have been kept.

Tragically, humans are responsible for approximately 43% of all manatee deaths where the cause of death was determined. The majority of these manatees were killed from collisions with boats. Manatees are slow-moving herbivores who feed on water plants in shallow coastal waters, rivers, and springs. They must surface to breathe every few minutes, making them particularly susceptible to boat strikes. Ultimately, the greatest threat to manatees is loss of their habitat to development.

The environmental groups charge that the Army Corps of Engineers has violated numerous ESA, NEPA, and MMPA provisions by approving permits for construction, dredging, and other activities that degrade manatee habitat and result in more boats in their habitat. The groups further charge that the USFWS has, among other violations, prepared and issued inadequate and unlawful Biological Opinions that ignore the cumulative impacts of development, boat traffic, and habitat destruction.

Likewise, the groups charge, the State of Florida has failed to adequately protect manatees. In 1989, the Governor and Cabinet unanimously issued a directive that 13 "key" manatee counties implement manatee protection plans. By the end of 1999, after more than a decade, only four counties had these plans in place.

The result, says Stallings, has been a tragic and escalating toll on the Florida manatee population.

"The root of the problem is continued and unabated coastal development and the resulting increase in dangerous boat traffic," he says. "Not only are the manatees not being brought back to health population levels, they are suffering from higher mortality rates than ever. Maybe the Clinton Administration can wait until the manatee has disappeared, but we’re not going to sit by without taking action."

According to the USFWS, there is a clear correlation between the number of registered boats and increases in the number of manatees killed from boat collisions. In 1998, there were over 700,000 registered boats in the state. In the same year, boats killed 66 manatees, the highest number of such deaths in recorded history until this past year, when a record 82 manatees were killed in boat collisions.

The solution is as obvious as the problem, the groups note: enforce existing laws. This means stepping up enforcement efforts, adopting additional boat speed zones where existing zones are inadequate, and creating a comprehensive series of sanctuaries and refuges to protect manatees while resting, feeding, and breeding.

"After many decades of hard work and hard-won legislation to protect these extraordinary marine mammals, we have come to a crossroads," says Stallings. "We must decide now as a nation whether to honor our legal and moral commitment to the manatee or fail as environmental stewards and allow their extinction."