DeSantis Bolsters Manatee Conservation Efforts

Governor Ron DeSantis announced his intention to allocate addition funding for Manatee protection and rehabilitation efforts in Florida. The $30 million in funding will rehabilitate manatees at zoos and aquariums as well as providing lettuce to manatees starving from poor water quality and algae blooms that have depleted seagrass beds, a major foraging area for the species.

“It will enhance and expand the network of acute-care facilities like the one right here at Jacksonville Zoo to treat injured and distressed manatees,” DeSantis said. “The funding will also support restoration efforts for manatee access to Florida's warm-spring waters, habitat restoration in areas with high manatee populations, manatee rescue and recovery efforts and pilot projects like the supplemental feeding that FWC (the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) conducted this past winter.”

527 manatee deaths had been reported through April 22. The proposed 2022-2023 budget, which will take effect July 1.

Patrick Rose, the executive director of Save the Manatee Club, praised DeSantis' willingness to provide more funding for manatees and wildlife conservation in Florida.

“I am exceedingly grateful for Governor DeSantis’ commitment of more than $30 million in the Fiscal Year 2022-23 budget to enhance and expand manatee rescue and rehabilitation efforts and provide habitat restoration for areas where manatees are highly concentrated," Rose shared in a press release. "Due to the unprecedented severity of the ongoing Unusual Mortality Event—in which more than 1,600 manatees have died statewide over the last 16 months—these and additional extraordinary measures are called for in order to protect manatees and their critical habitat."