Florida manatees are struck by boats at epidemic rates, causing severe injuries, chronic pain, and death in a population that has recovered from near-extinction only to face a new anthropogenic threat.
A manatee struck by a motorboat experiences acute trauma: propeller blades cut through flesh, sometimes severing flippers, penetrating the thorax, or causing spinal injury. Survivors carry permanent scars and may suffer chronic pain from embedded foreign material or damaged joints. The cumulative scar burden on Florida's manatee population — where virtually all adults bear evidence of past strikes — represents a population-wide welfare problem of anthropogenic origin. Boat speed restrictions are the most effective welfare and conservation intervention available: they work, they cost boat operators relatively little inconvenience, and they protect a population that has recovered from the brink of extinction only to face a new high-intensity threat. Political resistance to speed restrictions from recreational boating interests has repeatedly weakened regulatory protection.