Even as temperatures have warmed this spring and some Florida manatees have left the Indian River Lagoon, where many of them died this winter without enough food to eat, researchers are finding survivors up and down the coast struggling with prolonged effects of starvation.
“This event is not over yet. We are still picking up occasional cases with the effects of starvation,” said Martine de Wit, a veterinarian in the state’s marine mammal pathology lab. Cases have been documented as far as Georgia, she said. “These animals started to eat, but their bodies could not resolve those effects of prolonged starvation.”
As of late last week, 738 manatee deaths had been recorded this year, according to reports from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The total is nearly triple the five-year average for the same time period. Fewer manatees, 637, were reported dead all of last year.
