Don't Downlist the Florida Manatee

[GoddessOfGuinness]

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is recommending that manatees be downlisted from endangered to threatened status on the state level.


http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/847148803?z00...

[TK421]

1. I used to watch these things swim in the canal outside my apartment

when I lived down there...pretty cool. Back then, they were beginning to enforce the boat speeds in the area, since many manatees were getting killed by the propellers

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. I get the feeling that there are boaters who

find the manatees a nuisance, and would be just as glad to see them go extinct.

[alarimer]

2. The Florida FWC is run by special interests

Clearly some developers and boating interests have gotten to them. The manatee population is not increasing; it decreases every year and too many of those deaths are attributable to boats. But God forbid we ask boaters to SLOW DOWN. Gotta run those big-ass engines, don't you know.

Not to mention the development that ruins habitats for manatees and everything else. I think Florida might be the worst state in terms of the hold that real estate developers and home builders have on the government. And I think it is true of both political parties there, although Republicans as always are infinitely worse. I thought Texas was bad (and it is pretty bad) but Florida I think takes the cake. We here in Corpus Christi are trying really hard to catch up though! If we had manatees, I think there would be open season on them. All we have are some pesky endangered snowy plovers and sea turtles. But that hasn't stopped the oil drilling on the Padre Island National Seashore.

Sorry, got a little off track there. Beach development is sort of a pet issue of mine, since it so often comes down to the haves versus the have-nots. Developers have money; beach-goers and wildlife viewers are have-nots.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

10. I read a story not too long ago

about Florida developers bulldozing close to 70,000 gopher tortoises over the last dozen years. And they don't reproduce until thy're around 10 years old.

Jeb Bush is a monstrous eco-pig!

[AmyDeLune]

3. Done! n/t

[GoddessOfGuinness]

12. Thank you!

[AmyDeLune]

4. Kick for the Manatees...

...they have no feet to do it for themselves...

[YankeyMCC]

5. My son recently

adopted a Manatee. We send some money to help maintain their habitat and the program sends him photos and info about one particular Manatee (this is bad but I can't recall he gave his Manatee at the moment) and about Manatee's in general.

I signed the petition.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

13. Placebo's link has an adoption page

http://www.savethemanatee.org/adoptpag.htm

Sorry for the slow reply...I want to keep this kicked as long as I can!
Thank you so much for caring!

[Placebo]

6. SAVE THE MANATEE!

http://www.savethemanatee.org/

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Thanks for the link!

[In_The_Wind]

8. The Manatee still need to be protected.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. Thanks Joan!

I knew I could count on you!

[Roon]

9. Awwww!!!

Kisses for the manatees!!

[ForrestGump]

11. Florida has long been an ecological disaster area. The place is run

roughshod over by greedy, nefarious developers and long has been -- put it together with corrupt politicians and...well...if you're familiar with Carl Hiassen's excellent books, they're pretty close to the real truth of that state's workings.

I love manatees, even though there've been a couple of times when they just about made me wet my wetsuit when they snuck up on me when I was working in the Florida Keys (on snorkel, in the increasingly murky and anoxic water of Florida Bay...it wasn't like they came out of a dark alley and accosted me, or anything). I haven't kept up with the news lately, but the last I heard manatees were dying en masse from disease -- they don't exactly bounce back in a hurry and were scarce to begin with, so what kind of f***wit is going to downlist the cherubs?

[AmyDeLune]

16. Flipper n/t