One thousand Florida manatees are on the brink of starvation because manmade pollution has depleted their food supply, and the US Fish & Wildlife Service will test a plan to feed wild manatees without making them dependent on human food sources, the Associated Press reports.
USFWS, state officials and private groups are joining resources on a test program to feed a few of the sea mammals in an isolated location at a Florida Power & Light plant in Cape Canaveral, where manatees congregate in cold winter months because of the warm water discharge from the plant.
The test will involve dropping green vegetables like lettuce, cabbage and spinach to the animals via a conveyor belt to minimize contact with humans. In Florida, it is illegally for people to directly feed manatees.
Already in 2021, 1,017 manatee have died from starvation. Scores more of the large, lumbering sea mammals die after getting hit by boat propellers in heavily populated Florida areas with a lot of recreation boat traffic.
Runoff from farms, urban areas and sewage works have caused algae blooms to form in waterways populated by manatee, leading to the deoxygenation of large undersea areas as the algae die and decay at the bottom of the waterways.