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ORANGE CITY, Fla. – On a cold winter morning, as the morning sun peeks through the trees along Blue Spring Run, park rangers peer into the water and see how many Florida manatees are basking in their version of a hot tub. I’m counting.
On January 21, a prolonged cold snap with temperatures in the 30s caused water levels in the adjacent St. Johns River to drop to 50 degrees. A herd of sea cows fleeing the cold river flocked to the warm waters of the spring river.
Given the clear, glassy conditions and the fact that hundreds of manatees were crowded together and stacked on top of each other, park officials thought there might be a record number. They doubled down and stationed two rangers each along a road that snaked three-tenths of a mile from a spring gushing water from an underground cave to the river.
Their final total of 932 didn’t just set a record; That significantly exceeds the previous record, even the 736 cases counted on New Year’s Day. This is a far cry from the single-day record of 49 manatees set 40 years ago, and more than double the single-day record set just 10 years ago.
This new record is breathtaking and incredible for those who have watched and supported these animals for decades.
“It’s thrilling and incredible!” John Bengston, an Alaska federal wildlife ecologist, said that when Bengston completed his doctoral research on St. A record number of just 35 bearded marine mammals were found in one day.
“These high numbers are encouraging and a tribute to the conservation efforts and awareness of scientists, natural resource managers and the public over the past several decades,” Bengston told USA TODAY.
Before:See Florida’s iconic manatees as they continue to fight for survival
The thriving manatee population in St. John’s is rooted in a variety of conservation efforts over several decades, often through lengthy legal battles and controversial public meetings.
David Hankler, a former field director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a veteran of some of these fiercest battles, said the numbers show that these diligent conservation measures are working. He said there was.
“That’s what you would expect in an animal that hasn’t experienced unnatural mortality,” Hankula said. “I think (St. John’s) is one of the safer places for manatees,” Hankula said.
On a statewide scale, “manatees are doing very well,” he said. In the early 1990s, the population was estimated at approximately 1,500 people. Last fall, Florida officials estimated the state’s manatee population at 8,350 to 11,730, based on a 2021-2022 assessment.
Florida manatees share the state’s waters with 1 million registered vessels and nearly 22 million people. While St. John’s manatees thrive under protected conditions, other manatees face great danger.
More than 1,000 manatees died in the Indian River Lagoon on the state’s east coast between 2020 and 2022, many starving due to a lack of healthy seagrass caused by years of massive algae blooms. Ta. The cause is thought to be deterioration of water quality due to various factors.
more:Florida’s hungry manatees reflect problems in coastal ecosystems around the world
Manatee mortality is also high on the state’s southwest coast, where they contend with crowded waters, red tide algal blooms and other water quality issues.
Federal officials downgraded the manatee from endangered to endangered in 2017, but said last year they would reconsider whether the manatee should be considered endangered again in light of increased deaths in 2021 and 2022. It was announced in October.
Sea cows come in from the cold and can be counted
Manatees, who are susceptible to cold stress when water temperatures drop below 68 degrees, are drawn to Blue Springs, where water temperatures are more than 20 degrees warmer than the river.
Although it is often repeated that spring water is a “constant” 72 or 73, U.S. Geological Survey data shows the water is warming. Current spring temperatures range from 73.5 to 76 degrees.
Connor Wagner, a park management specialist at Blue Springs, said counting live animals piled up in the water after they arrive isn’t necessarily an exact science.
Park rangers depart in the early hours before park opening, just after first light, counting from trails and vantage points while the manatees remain undisturbed and stationary.
Researchers from the Save the Manatee Club also count manatees almost every day during spring runs and work to identify individual animals. One of them, Wayne Hartley, was Blue Springs’ park specialist before retiring.
He has been canoeing among sea cows for more than 40 years, identifying individuals based on their distinctive propeller scars and other body characteristics. Lately, he’s been surprised by the number of manatees he can’t identify because they don’t have post scars.
On the day the park’s population reached 932, Hartley and co-worker Cora Berchem went into the water about an hour after park rangers left, after the manatees started moving around and the wind picked up. Ta. Hartley said he counted nearly 700 manatees.
Sometimes there are more parks, and sometimes there are more clubs, he said. “Sometimes you can see it better from the boardwalk. Sometimes you can see it better from a canoe.”
Overall this season, Hartley and colleagues identified more than 800 manatees, including more than 80 calves.
Such numbers are astonishing to Hartley, and to the many biologists, advocates, and elected officials who survived the battles that set this success story.
Local resident Arnette Sherman visits the park several days a week. “It’s very exciting to see so many manatees at once,” Sherman said.
Saving a manatee in the St. Johns River
Manatees have been protected in Florida since the late 1800s and were one of 70 animals added to the United States’ first endangered species list in 1967.
However, many believe that it was renowned oceanographer Jacques Cousteau who captured the public’s attention on manatees. Cousteau visited Blue Springs, then a private fish camp, in 1971 and photographed the animals’ scarred backs and the people trying to ride them. A few months after an episode of “The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau” aired in January 1972, the state purchased the spring.
By 1989, Florida had become a legal and political battleground as government agencies, encouraged by the Save the Manatee Club and other nonprofit groups, sought to enact conservation laws. His highest daily count at Blue Springs that year was 57 manatees.
The state has ordered major counties to develop conservation plans that set boat speed limits to reduce collisions in areas frequented by manatees. The plan was particularly controversial in Volusia County, home to Blue Springs.
Local, state and federal officials, along with advocates and boaters, fought over boat speeds for more than a decade.
Boaters and fishermen worried about the economic impact and argued that it would not cover a large area between fishing spots. The bumper sticker read, “Welcome to Florida. Manatees are more precious than children.” At one point, an elected official angrily complained that the county “should open a manatee cannery.”
However, the tragic boat-related deaths of two manatees in St. John’s Islands in 1991 spurred a push for animal protection. One of the animals, Sweet Gum, an animal in the Manatee Club’s manatee adoption program, suffered five deep gashes from the propeller, severing her spine in two places.
Similar battles over plans to restore the spring’s water flow have been waged for a decade, forcing local power companies to find alternatives to meet the water needs of a rapidly growing population. The state park also closed its waters during the winter to give manatees space, angering swimmers.
Had there been 800 or 900 manatees in the spring that controversial year, Hankula said, it would have looked “bizarre.” However, these measures collectively achieved their objectives and created a haven where the animals thrived.
Looking to the future
Today, Blue Springs State Park receives about 700,000 visitors a year, more than half of them during the winter months, and on the busiest days it can take several hours to enter the park. On the river, boaters and anglers share the water with ecotourists who observe the abundant wildlife.
Manatee numbers show conservation measures are working, Hankula said. But he says it becomes a problem if water quality or quantity decreases. “That’s what happened at Indian River.”
He said the state could take further steps to help manatees in the St. Johns Islands. They were finally able to demolish the Rodman Dam, located about 74 miles north of Blue Spring on the Ocklawaha River.
Removing the dam would give manatees free access to the Ocklawaha River, a major tributary of the St. Johns River. The move has long been controversial among fishermen and some local lawmakers, and so far opponents have been victorious.
But if the dams were removed or lock operations changed, Ocklawaha could support “significant” numbers of manatees, Hankula said.
“You don’t have to do anything other than let them in,” he said. “It’s a very important occasion.”
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