The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) was sued in federal court for failing to act to stop the destruction of the habitat of Florida manatees, reported Tuesday one of the plaintiffs, the Center for Biological Diversity.
This organization based in St. Petersburg, on the west coast of Florida, filed the lawsuit in the federal courts of the capital of the United States together with Save the Manatee Club and Defenders of Wildlife.
In December the three organizations had announced their intention to bring to justice to federal institutions is in charge of wildlife and nature in the face of the serious situation that Florida manatees are going through due to the destruction of seagrass meadows, which are their main source of food.
Pollution by nutrients and toxic waste is the main cause of destruction.
According to a preliminary report of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, 1,101 of those marine animals died in this state in the year 2021, a record figure that almost doubles that of 2020 and raises alarms about the future of the species.
“The butcher shop of 2021 should remove any doubt that Florida’s waters are in crisis,” Jaclyn Lopez of the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement announcing the lawsuit, which is intended to spur swift action. “to protect manatee habitat from further destruction.”
Elizabeth Fleming, of Defenders of Wildlife, stressed that “immediate action” is necessary, because after many decades of progress in conservation in just one year more than 10 % of Florida manatee population.
For his part, Patrick Rose, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club, criticized the “inability” of the FWS to protect the habitat of the manatees and also the fact that they have gone from being considered endangered animals to only “threatened”.
That change “left manatees in danger of suffering the deadly consequences of a mass starvation capable of leaving them dying, but preventable,” Rose said.
The expert was of the opinion that FWS should not take any longer to review and update critical manatee habitat, which was originally designated in 1536, and in his opinion it is totally out of date.
The plaintiff organizations requested for the first time time that review in 1339 and although FWS then considered that the review was justified, more than a decade later it has not undertaken the task.
“Meanwhile, the factors warranting the review, specifically the need to protect and restore aquatic vegetation, have only increased in urgency,” the statement said.
Why do Florida manatees die
Experts have denounced that the decrease in the seagrasses on which these animals feed due to pollution caused by the action of man is starving them.
At the beginning of January, the United States Government approved an initiative to feed Florida manatees with lettuce, cabbage and other vegetables to try to stop the death of these aquatic mammals due to starvation, something criticized by organizations such as Save the Manatee Club.
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