FL Manatee Deaths From Red Tide Hit 181 So Far In 2013 - New Record; Unusually Warm Winter Cause
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The so-called Red Tide algae bloom has killed a total of 181 manatees so far this year, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. That figure already surpasses the highest number of Red Tide manatee deaths on record - 151 in 1996 - and experts expect the number to keep rising through the spring.
"We'll probably have Red Tide victims several more months," said Dr. Larry Killmar, head of animal science and conservation at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo, which is home to the manatee rehab team. So far 12 rescued manatees have been brought in for treatment from Red Tide poisoning. "We're not even getting a chance to work on many of them," Killmar said of the large number of deaths. "If we can get them early enough, we can save them."
The problem, he and other experts note, was Florida's warm winter, which appears to have sparked an earlier than normal algae bloom in the Gulf of Mexico along a 70-mile (112-km) swath of southwest Florida's coast, home to a large share of the state's estimated 5,000 manatees.
The naturally occurring algae that blooms into Red Tide carries toxins that are usually inhaled by manatees when they come up for air, typically every 20 minutes. But now they're also ingesting the toxins when they eat after the Red Tide saturated sea grasses that the manatees graze on, Killmar said. The toxins spark seizures and paralyze the manatees, which struggle to breathe or surface for air - causing them to drown.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-usa-florida-manatees-idUSBRE92D06L20130314?feedType=RSS&feedName=environmentNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2Fenvironment+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Environment%29
