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While the threat of collisions with recreational watercraft continues to be a serious
concern for the Florida manatee population, a growing threat in the future is likely
to be the loss of available winter habitat. Manatees are at risk of illness or death
in water temperatures less than 20°C. To meet their thermoregulatory needs, manatees
rely on sources of warm-water habitat. Currently the majority of the population is
utilizing thermal discharges at coastal power plants to stay warm during winter cold
periods; however, most of these power plants are expected to close down in the next
t20 to 50 years. Since 1998 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
(FWC) has collected time-series temperature data at various sites used by manatees
in winter. The goal of my project was to evaluate the thermal characteristics of 10
suspected warm-water sites in southern Florida to assess their potential suitability
as winter habitat for manatees. Sites were assessed based on how frequently they were
at temperatures considered threatening to manatee health and mortality, and on how
many consecutive days they remained below these threshold temperatures. Delta-T and
regression analysis were also used to compare the temperature of potential warm-water
sites to that of nearby ambient sites. The results of this analysis will be used to
make
recommendations to the FWC about which sites might provide suitable warm-water
habitat and should be further investigated with more detailed monitoring efforts in
the
future. This information could be used to meet the agency’s long-term goal of creating
a protected network of warm-water habitat throughout the state.
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