Mahdi Kassam pushed a cart through the halls of the Senate Office Building Thursday afternoon. Delivery from Rep. (Joy) Goff-Marcil, the representative s legislative aide said, dropping a small gift bag in each senator s office.
The gray bags were adorned with a small blue sticker with an illustration of the Florida state marine mammal reading Save the Manatees!
The bags held a small jar of murky water from the Indian River Lagoon (IRL) and were delivered to all 40 senators and 120 House members this week. Over 500 manatees have starved and died in the IRL since December because there are no plants to eat, a sheet of paper also slipped inside the bags read. Manatee necropsies document empty stomachs and stomachs with plastic bags as the only content.