Manatees are slow-moving aquatic mammals in Florida and other warm coastal regions that are frequently injured and killed by boat propellers. Reducing boat strikes is a critical welfare and conservation priority.
Boat strikes cause severe and painful injuries to manatees that are entirely preventable through behavioral changes and regulation. Propeller impacts cause lacerations that can penetrate to bone, amputate flippers, and cause internal hemorrhage. Animals that survive strikes often carry permanent injuries that impair swimming and feeding. The fact that most adult Florida manatees carry propeller scars reflects the ongoing scale of the problem — chronic exposure to boat traffic causes repeated welfare harms across individual lifetimes. Slow-speed zones in manatee habitat areas are proven to reduce strike rates, but compliance and enforcement are imperfect. Boater education and technology solutions including manatee detection systems represent additional welfare interventions.