Downlist threat to Floridas' manatees

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's (FWCC) Biological Review Panel has issued a report recommending that manatees be downlisted from endangered to threatened status on the state level.

Manatees are poised to be downlisted regardless of how wild population numbers are progressing, because of a calculated effort by special interest groups opposed to boat speed zones and restrictions on development. And the FWCC has done its part by adopting state listing/delisting criteria so stringent that manatees would have to undergo or be at risk of undergoing an 80% decline in population before they would be listed as endangered in Florida.

The decision is to be taken in June, however we are asking that people write now to the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, opposing the downlisting of this species and demanding that manatees continue to be listed as endangered.

Contact details
Governor Jeb Bush
Executive Office of the Governor
The Capitol
Tallahassee
FL 32399-0001
USA

tel : 001 850 488 4441
fax: 001 850 487 0801
email