2020 was bad year for manatees
Floodgates, locks killed especially high number By Adriana Brasileiro, The Miami Herald
Published: January 19, 2021, 6:02am
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3 Photos A manatee mom and calf seen Thursday gathering at their favorite cold-weather spot: the warm-water outflows from Florida Power & Light s plant in Riviera Beach, Fla. (GREG LOVETT/The Palm Beach Post) Photo Gallery
MIAMI In a year when a third of manatee fatalities in Florida were not investigated because COVID-19 restrictions limited necropsies and boat strikes once again topped deaths caused by humans, one indicator stood out: manatees killed by floodgates and locks.
Of a total of 619 deaths in Florida’s waterways last year, 10 manatees were crushed or drowned in flood-control structures, according to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s preliminary mortality report. It may seem like a small number compared with the 90 animals that died after being hit by boats. Bu
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Wildlife Biologist Natalie Mahomar was birdwatching at Miami’s Little River with a friend Sunday when they saw it.
“I came over here and I see this giant manatee without a head,” Mahomar told Local 10. “It was very devastating. There were some small pieces, maybe two or three.”
It was the carcass of an adult female manatee that appeared to have been beheaded.
“The head was on the other side of the gate and for sure, that’s what it was,” Mahomar explained. “Because there was an eyeball, and we did see the actual face that was detached from it.”