Brevard County accounts for more than half of manatee deaths in 2022

While overall manatee deaths in Florida have declined since last year's catastrophic mass die-off, sea cow deaths in Brevard are on pace to top last year's record 358 deaths in the county.

According to the latest figures from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, at least 335 manatees had died in Brevard through Aug. 12,  more than half — 54% — of this year's 661 manatee deaths.

About a third of the record total 1,101 manatee deaths in the whole state last year, happened in Brevard, where typically a third of the sea cow's population resides.

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"For the total year so far, starvation/chronic malnutrition is still the leading cause of death for manatees in Brevard," Martine deWit, lead veterinarian at Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's marine mammal pathobiology lab in St. Petersburg, said Friday via email.

Since May, manatee mortality numbers have been near or below baseline levels, deWit added, and currently watercraft-related mortality is the leading cause of death. Through Aug. 12, Florida had 51 watercraft-related manatee deaths, six of them in Brevard.

Manatee deaths from chronic malnutrition has been a winter problem for the past two years, deWit said. The cold adds an extra stressor to manatees, already physically stressed.

"But this condition does not happen overnight," deWit added, "and where manatees spend the summer foraging is one of the key factors that determines how they fare in winter.

Cold has claimed nine manatees in Florida and one in Brevard early this year.

"Many manatees are concentrated in Mosquito Lagoon this summer, there are reports of foraging but concern remains that seagrass is still limited and there are also field observations of live manatees in suboptimal condition," deWit wrote.

"Last year we documented the first primary starvation/chronic malnutrition cases in late October, and they picked up in November. This is a chronic disease that lingered in those manatees over summer, so even though the specific mortality numbers are not flagging this at the moment, it does not mean animals are not nutritionally challenged right now."

The manatee death toll got so bad that in April 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the die-off an Unusual Mortality Event. In a first-of-its kind pilot project to try to stave off further starvation, state and federal biologists fed manatees at the FPL plant last winter and through the end of March. 

Jim Waymer is an environment reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Waymer at 321-261-5903 or jwaymer@floridatoday.com. Or find him on Twitter: @JWayEnviro or on Facebook: www.facebook.com/jim.waymer

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