Quotes about manatees (13 Quotes)


    If you took the city of Tokyo and turned it upside down and shook it you would be amazed at the animals that fall out: badgers, wolves, boa constrictors, crocodiles, ostriches, baboons, capybaras, wild boars, leopards, manatees, ruminants, in untold numbers. There is no doubt in my mind that that feral giraffes and feral hippos have been living in Tokyo for generations without seeing a soul.

    We've gotten better at the surveys and added more areas we think manatees will be. We've learned a lot about how weather affects counts, and really refined our calculations about the weather and the days that we fly.

    Because Putnam and Volusia counties have manatee viewing as a spring and summertime tourist attraction, the need to be safe is imperative and the boaters are very cognizant of them being in the water. We are not big fans of people swimming with manatees, but manatee viewing is something everyone should do before they die. It is that awesome. People have a heightened awareness of manatees after actually seeing them.

    There are four main areas of concern where manatees tend to live. The northeast or upper St. Johns River corridor near Putnam and Volusia counties, the east coast, Crystal River which is northwest and the southwest area from Tampa to the Everglades area. Two of those areas, the two small ones, Crystal River and the upper St. Johns River, are doing well in those regions.

    We think manatee zones can be implemented that protect manatees and still provide reasonable access for boaters. That's been our argument all along, and I think the commission is becoming more and more receptive.


    We felt it was very important to let people know there are more manatees now than there were 25 years ago. So we're not in any emergency situation we are in a situation where we have to manage the species carefully.

    All a manatee needs, we have found, is a chance to get out of the way of an oncoming boat. We have scientific proof that manatees can sense a boat and attempt to move away. A fast boat doesn't give the slow moving animal an opportunity to get out of the way.

    You are so lucky because you live on the west coast of Florida, where there are lots and lots of manatees, ... Most of the kids in the country don't know about manatees and how wonderful they are.

    What we've learned is the Florida manatee is genetically unique, and that it's isolated from manatees elsewhere in the Caribbean and the Yucatan. Because of their low genetic diversity, it causes concern but not alarm.

    In season, to get from North Fort Myers to Fort Myers Beach can easily take two hours and you are stuck in traffic most of the time, ... It's a nightmare. Plus, don't forget you have to pay for parking and the bridge toll if you go to Sanibel. On the boat you can see dolphins, manatees and other wildlife you may never see in a car.

    We've learned a lot about how weather affects counts, and really refined our calculations about the weather and the days that we fly, I can't say it's not a possibility that there were 3,000 manatees in 1991.

    As much as animals like elephants are currently under threat in Central Africa, whales, manatees and turtles, to name a few, are probably in far more dire peril -- and almost nobody knows,

    It's the one thing we can actually do something about. Obey the laws. If you're going to run fast, stay in the middle of the channel because the manatees spend more time on the edges where the grass is.



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