Manatees

The fishing pier along the Orange River at Manatee Park, 10901 Palm Beach Blvd., Fort Myers, will close temporarily beginning July 31 for scheduled maintenance.

More manatees have died in Southwest Florida so far this year. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission found Lee County leads the state in sea cow deaths with 87

environmental groups have put the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on notice for not adequately protecting the West Indian Manatee

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service wants to delist the wood stork from endangered to threatened, which has Florida conservation groups at odds

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission released preliminary numbers Tuesday showing 1,100 of the sea cows perished in the state from causes including boat strikes, cold stress, in flood gates and canal locks, perinatal reasons as well as from natural causes. An FGCU professor says stopping pollution would be one way to help the manatees survive such huge death tolls.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will add to its boater safety course questions about the rules designed to protect manatees, sea turtles and other marine life at risk of injury from watercraft.

Three adult male manatees rescued from waters in the Florida Keys earlier this year were returned to a Keys canal Tuesday after being treated and rehabilitated at SeaWorld Orlando.

Calling declines in the manatee population since 2017 “dramatic” a coalition of groups have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to increase protections for the aquatic mammal.The Center for Biological Diversity, Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic, Miami Waterkeeper, Save the Manatee Club and Frank S. González García filed the petition Monday. The petition urges the federal wildlife agency to reclassify the species from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will include more than $30 million in the state's 2023 budget to try and figure out why record numbers of manatees are dying in Florida waters. Scientists blame agriculture and development for polluting the rivers where manatees live.

This past January, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership released a rehabilitated female manatee in the outflow area next to Manatee Lagoon, an FPL Eco-Discovery Center in West Palm Beach.