Revival of seagrass may save Florida’s starving manatees

All too many manatees die of starvation or are killed by boat propellers. But now there is hope for these sea cows, which are distantly related to elephants. Seagrass, which had become scarce, is growing in more areas of the Florida coast, such as Mosquito Lagoon, thanks to a seagrass nursery project. “The recovery of seagrass, the manatees’ favorite food, in Mosquito Lagoon means that an emergency hand-feeding program that has kept many of the starving aquatic animals alive over the last two winters can be discontinued, at least temporarily,” reports The Guardian.

Manatees have experienced record mortality in recent years from habitat loss and dwindling food supplies. But the success at Mosquito Lagoon offers hope in manatees’ battle for survival. Scientists and the Florida fish and wildlife commission (FWC)

have focused their restoration efforts on the lagoon in northern Brevard county, one of the most popular feeding grounds for manatees during the colder winter months. That’s where the majority of manatee deaths, an unprecedented 1,100 in Florida in 2021, 10% of the population, and another 800 in 2022, occurred…with the majority of fatalities through malnutrition and starvation, a reflection of the loss of about 90% of the lagoon’s seagrass to algae blooms and pollutants….It’s one of several projects underway in Florida … in which a diverse range of seagrass varieties are cultivated for research and transplant.

It is also a prominent component of a catalog of FWC manatee habitat restoration schemes, themed mostly around improvements in water quality and aquatic vegetation, that experts believe has potential to turn years of declining numbers into a robust recovery….“Manatees move long distances to find foraging resources and are generalist herbivores, but continued declines in seagrass would mean the regional populations would have to find other vegetation, freshwater marsh plants, salt marsh, overhanging vegetation, etc, on which to feed, exposing them to further stresses.”

This month, Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis announced a $100m award of state funds for water-quality improvements in the Indian River Lagoon, one of North America’s most biologically diverse waterways. The cleaner the water, the better the seagrass….All of which, in turn, is only good news for the ever-hungry manatee. Hanisak and his students have steadily been building the capacity of the seagrass nursery at multiple locations. That seagrass will ultimately be transplanted into the Indian River Lagoon and elsewhere. The students are also cultivating plants from different areas of the lagoon to preserve its genetic diversity.

Sea turtles are proliferating, with sea turtle nests tripling in Florida. Fish species are rebounding off the coast of California due to their young finding a sanctuary in abandoned oil rigs.

A baby beaver was recently born in London, the first beaver birth there in 400 years. Recently, carnivorous plants were reintroduced to English wetlands.

Researchers discovered that a plant virus could be used to save crops from root-eating pests. A virus is being used to cure deafness in new gene therapy. A mutant tomato could save harvests around the world. Farmers have found they can increase crop yields by using electrical stimulation on their crops.

A dog recently discovered a species of mole long thought to be extinct, De Winton’s golden mole.

Scientists recently developed genetically-modified bananas to keep the principal variety of banana from being wiped out by a dangerous blight. They also engineered bionic silkworms that spin fibers six times stronger than Kevlar.