Tackling Issues To Protect Manatees And Their Habitat By Katie Tripp, Ph.D., Director of Science and Conservation t has been a busy time for comment letters, with communications going out to the Southwest Florida Water Management District for their Kings Bay Surface Water Improvement Management (SWIM) Plan for Citrus County. We served on the Technical Working Group that helped identify Plan projects and their District Regional Water Supply Plan. We also provided comments on the Central Florida Water Initiative (cfwiwater.com) and to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for the Silver Springs Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP), Surface Water Quality Standards Triennial Review, and Mooring Field General Permit rulemaking. Additionally, we provided comments to the federal Surface Transportation Board regarding a plan for rail- based cargo shipping from Port Canaveral that could have negative impacts on the Indian River Lagoon. We also provided comments to the Army Corps of Engineers on the Miami Boat Show, which could cause resource impacts as currently proposed in a new location. We attended a DEP Much of the Club's work for manatees involves workshop wherein alternative protection of habitat, like these feeding areas near methods for meeting state Blue Spring State Park on the St. Johns River. water quality standards under Photo by Katie Tripp. continued on page 7 Watch Manatees On The Webcams! By Nancy Sadusky, Director of Online Communications The weather is cooler in Florida, and that means the return of manatees to warm-water areas throughout the state. At Blue Spring State Park, Wayne Hartley, Save the Manatee Club’s Manatee Specialist, goes out almost daily to do his “Manatee Roll Calls.” You may not be there in person, but you can still watch the manatees on the Club's Blue Spring webcams at manatv.org. The Official Newsletter of The Club has strategically placed Save the Manatee® Club underwater and above-water cameras 500 N. Maitland Ave. in the park’s spring run to provide Maitland, FL 32751 live streaming of endangered manatees and other Florida wildlife. November, Volume 34 The webcams have viewers from Issue #4 of 2015 around the world and allow people Published four times a year to observe manatees in their natural in March, June, September environment. You can see manatees and November. playing and cavorting and view them up close and in real time. Visitors to Caught on the Webcams: Manatees having the webcams will also see alligators fun in the waters of the Blue Spring Run. Artwork by Nancy Blauers Nancy by Artwork Photo © Save the Manatee Club. continued on page 6 Processing My Blue Spring Manatee Research By Wayne Hartley, Manatee Specialist – Blue Spring Adoption Update ith manatee season just now starting, the Project, and I review the webcam film clips to add manatees having been scattered throughout identifications. I often ID manatees in pictures taken the St. Johns River and points beyond, along the St. Johns River. Sometimes this is sad as there are few adoptee updates to give. One the pictures are from the Marine Mammal Biologists exception is Amber, Squeaky’s mom, who dropped by in at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation August with a new calf. Commission (FWC) Field Labs of manatees that have During the summer, I have a chance to catch up on died. This summer such photos have allowed me to office work, processing all that happened the previous identify Hogan, a very old and very large manatee winter. I put my daily counts on attendance sheets that that first came to Blue Spring in 1999, and Necro, list all the manatees in for the season, and I check off a young female that died of undetermined causes. those that were in that day. Air and water temperatures Recently I was informed of the death of Jessica. are also entered. The FWC did not need me to ID her since she had With that done, I can figure out how many manatees Passive Integrated Transponder tags from her time in were in for the season; how many truly stayed the rehabilitation at Sea World for a flipper amputation winter; how many individuals were in each month of the caused by line entanglement. Jessica was killed by a season. I also have other records to update, including boat in Jacksonville at age twenty-four. She had seven a list of all the breeding females and their calves, the siblings, nine calves, eight grandcalves and three great genealogies of the primary matriarchies at Blue Spring, grandcalves. an entanglement record, and a list of captive releases at Now that I am caught up, another manatee season Blue Spring. begins! I also label the pictures taken by the USGS Sirenia Sign up to receive our Action Alerts, E-Newsletter, and Manatee Gift notices at savethemanatee.org/signup. Be An Active Participant During Manatee Awareness Month By Janice Nearing, Director of Public Relations November is Manatee Awareness Month in Florida, and at Save the Manatee Club, where saving endangered manatees and their habitat is our only mission, we ask for everyone’s extra help in raising public awareness this month and beyond. To the boating community in Florida, be on the lookout for migrating manatees as they swim to warmer waters as cooler weather sets in. If you see a manatee in distress, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s 24-hour Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-3922. Also, email Save the Manatee Club at [email protected] and ask for our free public awareness materials to protect manatees, including boating For Manatee Awareness Month, join our Volunteer Team! Staff banners and decals, protection-tips cards, an education table at events, like volunteers Deb & Doug Brown and dock signs for Florida shoreline (l-r in photo) and Tamara & Tim Carroll are doing here. Photo property owners. courtesy the Carrolls. To anyone who can spare some time, think about volunteering for the Club. We are always in need of dedicated volunteers to staff education tables at events and give manatee presentations wherever you may live. Join the Club’s Volunteer Team online at savethemanatee.org/volunteer. To everyone around the world, watch manatees to your heart’s content on the Club’s webcams located at Blue Spring State Park, Florida. We literally reach millions of people with our important manatee conservation message. 2 Check out manatv.org and tell your friends. Exciting News–Protecting West African Manatees! By Katie Tripp, Ph.D., Director of Science and Conservation n August 2014, Save the Manatee Club (SMC) began a collaboration with the Tropical Research and Conservation Center (TRCC) in Nigeria to provide community education about manatee biology and conservation in a village known to use traps to poach endangered West African manatees in the country’s lowland rainforest region. The village has also been undertaking sand mining and slash-and-burn agricultural practices that were eroding the riverbank and degrading water qual- ity. Many manatees in the region obtain their food from shorelines and overhanging trees, meaning ero- sion posed not only an indirect water quality threat, but also caused a direct loss of the manatees’ food source. The river additionally provides drinking and irrigation water for the village, so erosion control would also benefit the village. Residents of the Nyareenyin Ntong Uno Village, The community manatee education program reached along the Kwa Iboe River in Nigeria, conduct the men and youths in the village known to be engaged environmental monitoring as a result of a in hunting or farming activities. Participants learned program started by the Club and TRCC. Photo by about threats to the West African manatees and how Ikponke Nkanta. they could help protect manatees that passed through their village. Historically, manatees were considered law. Volunteers were also trained in sustainable sacred and were not hunted, but the loss of cultural watershed practices; tree planting; environmental beliefs, along with socio-economic changes, caused monitoring to ensure no further shoreline destruction; manatees to lose this inherent protection. The program and in recording manatee sightings. culminated in the development of a Community During the educational program, it became clear that Manatee Conservation Committee and a Conservation the five village manatee poachers would be willing Plan with by-laws for the village. The village council to stop if they had access to an alternative livelihood. will implement and enforce the plan as a community In December 2014, SMC provided $2,000 for a continued on page 6 Winter Is On the Way–Welcome Wild Manatees! By Tricia Fowler, Wildlife Care Supervisor— Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park Update With the winter season time grabbing it off the surface alike. We are very proud of our approaching, everything is going before it floats too far away. Manatee Watch Program and the well here at the Park. Our four We are now gearing up for this incredible impact we are able to girls, Rosie, Lorelei, Ariel, and year’s Manatee Watch season, make each winter. Electra, have had a good summer which starts on November 15th. November 15th is also the date and fall seasons. Several months We are in the process of recruiting we welcome the wild manatees ago they were introduced to coastal new volunteers for our program. into the Park. The gates to the main hay as a part of their new diet. This The Park has an amazing team spring, provided by funding from hay mimics the natural vegetation of Manatee Watch volunteers SMC, will be opened allowing they would be eating in the wild that spend their days on the river the wild manatees access to the and provides them with benefits educating boaters and swimmers warmer water.