West Indian manatees have recovered from near-extinction but face ongoing threats from boat propellers, habitat loss, and cold stress. Their welfare requires active management alongside habitat protection.
Manatee welfare is shaped by the cumulative burden of human activity in their coastal habitats. Boat strikes cause acute traumatic injury — propeller wounds to the back and flanks — and animals that survive carry lifelong scarring and disability. Cold stress events cause a dangerous condition called cold stunning, which requires rescue and rehabilitation. The 2021 starvation event revealed a new dimension of welfare risk: seagrass meadows, manatees' primary food source, have been devastated by water quality degradation from agricultural runoff. Addressing manatee welfare requires both immediate interventions — boat speed zones, rescue programmes — and long-term habitat restoration that reverses the seagrass loss driving nutritional stress across Florida's coastal waterways.