What Is The Importance Of Manatees

The gentle giants, known to most as manatees or sea cows, are harmless but far from being out of harm’s reach. While population numbers are higher today than they have been in many years, this could all change soon due to their removal from the endangered species list. The attention that hhas benefitted them could now be the cause of a future population decline, if actions are not taken quickly. While all of the protection laws still exist, the public is now beginning to see the species as one that no longer needs help, causing many to challenge pre-existing laws, have a lower amount of respect for these animals, and disregard the caution that once surrounded the treatment of manatees. However, these animals are still in desperate need of the
same respect and protection that they were receiving prior to this status change, and the previous attention given to them needs to be maintained in order for this species to continue to recover.
Many organizations have been formed over the years to help the population begin to regrow. However, many of these efforts are now at risk of being undone. On April 7, 2016, manatees were removed from the endangered species list, and are now classified as threatened, which is only slightly improved from endangered.
According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, “The ESA defines an endangered species as one currently in danger of extinction
Callahan 2 throughout all or a significant portion of its range, and a threatened species as one that is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future.” Many people are interpreting the manatees’ removal from the endangered species list as displaying that they are no longer in any amount of danger. Some are requesting that many speed regulations be removed and the other regulations be dismissed. However, if these regulations are done away with, the status of the manatee population could be in jeopardy.
While some people are challenging these laws, others are ignoring them entirely. These people argue that the animal is no longer endangered, so the laws no longer are serving a purpose. They also claim that the laws were originally created based on emotions and a love of the gentle giant. However, the laws were very clearly based on logic, and with the intention of preventing as many boating accidents as possible, which is one of the largest threats to
the population. As stated in an article from miamidade.gov, “To help address this issue, FWC has established rules to restrict the speed and operation of vessels where necessary to protect manatees from harmful collisions with vessels and from harassment. In areas that are especially important to manatees, the rules can prohibit or limit entry into an area as well as restrict what activities can be performed in the area.”
It is also argued that boats are not that large of a threat to manatees.
However, in a threat analysis released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, it is stated that the
“assessment of threats suggests that watercraft-related mortality is having the greatest impact on manatee population growth and resilience.” (2) If these speed regulations were removed, as much of the public wishes, then the manatee population could end up facing a threat to their existence as large as that which existed in the early 1990s, when conservation effort first
Callahan 3 began.While their numbers have grown substantially, manatees still need and our help protection. The laws that were put in place were not temporary fixes, but permanent solutions to a problem that humans created and are responsible for fixing, and keeping fixed.
Why is all of this even important? Why should people care about this?Well, does every species not have the same right to this earth? Humans share the planet with all other living things, and we cannot put ourselves at a higher place than the others. These animals do
have emotions, they do have lives that are every bit as valuable as humans do, and they do have every right to the waters in which they live. That is their home, and they deserve to be safe in it. It is a similar idea that anyone could come through your house with a bulldozer at any time they please, and if one gets in the way, or gets hurt, they can only blame themselves and should expect no help from others in preventing this. By the logic being used, there are a lot of other humans out there, so one life doesn’t really matter. However, if this happened to any one person, the media would explode, and people would be livid. Why? Because people are held at a higher value. Why should the manatees be held at any one that is any lower?
In all, we have a commitment to the earth that we live on. These creatures do not have a voice, so we must speak for them. It is our job to maintain the amount of respect for these animals, continue to have the same amount of caution when in areas that they are found, and comply with, as well as maintain the laws that were created to protect these wonderful creatures.
Though they are not endangered, they are still in danger, and it is this that the public needs to be made aware of.