Manatee No Longer An Endangered Species (miamiherald.com)

An anonymous reader quotes the Miami Herald: The manatee -- for decades the poster mammal for environmental decline in Florida -- is officially no longer an endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Thursday that the manatee will instead be designated "threatened" -- a status change that reflects a boom in population over the last decade. In February, Florida wildlife managers released preliminary results of an annual count that recorded 6,620 manatees lumbering in the warm waters of Florida's lagoons, springs and canals... "We believe this is a devastating blow to manatees," Patrick Rose, Executive Director for Save the Manatee Club, said in a statement. "A federal reclassification at this time will seriously undermine the chances of securing the manatee's long- term survival."
It was the third consecutive year to see an increase in the estimated population of manatees.

Comments

Patrick

[BinBoy]

> a status change that reflects a boom in population over the last decade.
> "We believe this is a devastating blow to manatees," Patrick Rose, Executive Director for Save the Manatee Club, said in a statement.

Patrick sounds like a really fun guy -- always looking at the positive side of things.

Re:Patrick

[mellon]

The problem is that just a couple of years ago manatees were dying off in large numbers—there were losses in some years of something like 30% of the total population, as a result of unusually cold waters. The current population peak coincides with a period of unusually warm water following El Niño. It's possible with global warming that that temperature trend will continue, but by no means guaranteed. So taking them off the endangered species list is premature. A population of 6000 is not exactly huge.

Re: Patrick

[brianerst]

His salary was $86,192 in 2014. Patrick is effectively the entire administrative expense of the Save the Manatee Club (9.9% of the budget is taken up by administrative expenses, 7.13% of the budget is Patrick's salary). There are 8 additional "staff" positions - they seem to be a combination of volunteers or are compensated under "fund raising" or "program" expenses.

I'd say this is probably his major source of income. It's a small organization (around $1.4M) and seems to do good work, but its income flow is entirely dependent on donors that are concerned about the status of the manatee.

"a devastating blow to manatees"

[cirby]

Well, a devastating blow to people who have invested their entire lives in telling people that manatees are dying off.

Look, it's fine. We know about them, we figured out how not to kill them by accident.

You did a good thing.

Now, it's time to scale back the fearmongering just a bit.

Re:"a devastating blow to manatees"

[v1]

While I'm a strong supporter for saving endangered species, there hopefully comes a point when any endangered species isn't endangered anymore. It takes time and resources to protect endangered species, and when you can call your job a success and strike one off the list as done, you do so in order to direct your resources at the next needy species. There's only so much to go around, and you need to put it where it will do the most good.

If lowering their protection now results in a significant decline, they'll get their name back on the list. But until then, there are many more in need of that assistance.

And to the gentleman that's upset about the lift and says there aren't enough of them, I ask you, how many is enough? Can you put a number on it? Do you even have a number in mind? The EPA etc have entire divisions of bean counters whose job is to run the numbers and calculate the risks when deciding where to spend their money and dedicate their resources - they're not just pulling this one out of a hat. You can count on this decision being the result of examining the numbers closely, and that beats any activist's armchair-quarterbacking on the issue.

Re:"a devastating blow to manatees"

[cirby]

I do live in Florida.

And I do support the common sense restrictions on things like speedboats in areas where manatees live, and laws keeping people from annoying them.

You can stop talking now.

I probably shouldn't say this

[No Longer an AC]

But does this mean I can have a manatee steak now?

They're often referred to as sea cows.

I love steak and I love seafood. Maybe this would be the perfect meal.

I'm glad they're off the endangered species list though. This is good news whether or not it means I can every eat one. I don't expect to see it on a menu anytime soon. They are cool creatures.

Job Security

[Shoten]

Actual quote:
"We believe this is a devastating blow to manatees," Patrick Rose, Executive Director for Save the Manatee Club, said in a statement. "A federal reclassification at this time will seriously undermine the chances of securing the manatee's long- term survival."

Translated for clarity and accuracy:
"We believe this is a devastating blow to my career," Patrick Rose, Executive Director for Save the Manatee Club, said in a statement. "A federal reclassification at this time will seriously undermine my chances of maintaining long-term employment."