March 23, 1995 - Man vs. Manatee: Counting the LossesMarch 23, 1995 • The Suffolk Times • 11 A
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
OSPREY — Spring moves north, from sunny Florida where ospreys have already had their young to our own East End where ospreys have just
returned. Each has its time in the scheme of things.
Man vs. Manatee: Counting the Losses
By Paul Stoutenburgh
If I spoke about a whale watch here on the East End
of Long Island I'm sure most people would understand
what I meant but if I spoke of a manatee watch that
might be a different story, not so much as to the watch
idea but whatever is a manatee?
Briefly, it is an aquatic mammal that looks like a
blunt -nosed seal with a large,
flat flipper like a tail that, with Focus on
the help of two side flippers,
propels this slow- moving oddity Nature
along as it grazes on greenery
along the bottom. Manatees
were once called sea cows by early settlers and fell
prey to their spears and guns to such an extent that their
numbers were sharply curtailed. They have no preda-
tors, except man, and as their numbers shrink and
Florida's population increases, they have become so
threatened that they now are classified as an endan-
gered species.
Today there is a great push to protect these harmless
creawres and one of the things the authorities are doing
is trying to keep track of where the manatees go, what
they feed on, where they feed, and what problems they
are facing in today's world. Hopefully, with this infor-
mation, they can alter the steady decline of these peace-
ful, lumbering aquatic animals.
To do this they need a reliable data base and so,
along with others, we're "counting manatees" and if
possible describing each one that passes through the
locks here on the river where we are camping. The
manatee watch was in operation when we arrived and
so Barbara and I thought it wise to participate in this
worthwhile project. What it amounts to is giving three
hours of your time each day to the cause. Our only dis-
appointment is that there are so few manatees to count.
Probably one or two a day would be a lot. Often days
go by without any.
Identified by Scars
Manatees average about 10 feet in length and weigh
between 800 and 1,200 pounds. They are semimigrato-
ry and move around during the warmer months to the
rivers and coastal areas surrounding Florida. In the
winter when the water temperature drops below 68
degrees they seek the warm, natural springs or outflows
from hydroelectric plants where the warm water com-
ing out of the plant meets their needs. It's rather hard to
spot these underwater oddities for they only come to
the surface every three to five minutes to breathe,
although I've been told they've been known to hold
their breath for as long as 20 minutes.
If left alone it is thought manatees could live to the
ripe old age of 60 years. One in captivity has lived to
age 40 so far. One wonders how they can survive at all
with so much boat traffic along the river. We know
they suffer from boats because one of the ways they
identify manatees is by the propeller cuts along their
backs. One has a long series of scars the length of its
body while another has only two or three. Then there is
one where the big flipper has been cut. All are marked
on a chart and recorded. A manatee and her young calf
were observed as they passed through the locks. Most
are loners traveling by themselves.
The population of manatees here in Florida is
believed to be around 1,200 and it's between March
and November that they
move about the waterways
down here. Some areas are
protected by slow speeds but m
this is only in congested
areas. We've seen big speed-
boats traveling through the
river wide open.
Our area here at the Ortona Locks on the
Caloosahatchee River was responsible last year for six
of the 16 manatee deaths. What was happening was that
the manatees were being crushed in the flood gates that
control the waters in the river and so this year a series of
removable gates was installed in hopes of keeping this
type of disaster from happening. So far it has worked.
Of course, when Barbara and I are on watch (we have
the 3 to 6 p.m. watch) we're looking for more than just
manatees. Yesterday we watched a river otter come up
out of the water all wet and glistening and walk up the
bank, seemingly to check us out. Then he said, "No,
thanks," turned around, and dropped back into the river.
They have an odd, lumbering, up- and -down stride, their
long, heavy tail trailing behind them. It's somewhat like
the muskrat that lives in our creeks and freshwater areas
but it's longer and thinner.
End. Some years one or two can be found earlier but on
average the 21 st is about when you can count on them.
It looks like I'll miss them this year.
It was only a few years ago that the first one of the
year for us was at Goldsmith's Inlet. It had been snow-
ing and I really didn't think we'd see one, but sure
enough, there it was sitting alongside its nest covered
with a light sprinkling of snow. I took the picture while
it was snowing — a sight I'll never forget.
It's remarkable to think that the osprey has recovered
from the brink of extinction. It wasn't too long ago that
their numbers were so close to fading away that most of
us were sure we were going to lose this symbol of
spring and glory. It was the era of Rachel Carson and
her warnings of pesticides. It was the time right here on
Long Island in the town of
Brookhaven when a local
group of citizens took the
Suffolk County Mosquito
Commission to court for
using DDT on our marshes to
kill mosquitoes. The truth
was it was causing trouble
with everything, including the reproduction of the
osprey. The group eventually was responsible for the
banning of DDT and the fort-nation of a group called
the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which has
now grown to national and international prominence.
One of the ways to identify
anatees is by the propeller
cuts along their backs.'
Of course, what really
captured our attention
was the beautiful flight of
an osprey that was
patrolling up the river in
hopes of catching a fish.
Down here they are
already nesting and have
young. March 21 is the
date our ospreys are usu-
ally expected on the East
Joseph L. Townsend
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Hope for the Future
All these gains and many others in the environmental
field give us hope that man will some day get his house in
order. The gates to keeping the manatees from being
crushed in the flood control structures, the awakening to
the problems associated with DDT, the return of the
osprey and a multitude of other events are rays of hope
that man has the knowledge and capacity to correct his
mistakes. The real test is whether or not he will be able to
act in time or will the greed and shenanigans of personal
gain win out over logic and reason for the good of all.
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