Florida manatees face two major anthropogenic welfare threats: propeller injuries from boats and cold stress syndrome from declining warm-water refuges as power plants close.
Manatee welfare harms from boat strikes are severe and common. Propeller lacerations cause deep tissue injuries that require extended veterinary care; survivors bear lifelong scars and may have compromised mobility. Cold stress syndrome causes a progressive decline — affected manatees become lethargic, stop feeding, and develop infections that kill without warm-water rescue and rehabilitation. The 2021 die-off from starvation — seagrass beds lost to algal blooms fueled by nutrient pollution — demonstrated that manatee welfare is intimately connected to water quality throughout their range. Individual animal welfare harms and population-level decline share the same root causes: boat traffic, thermal refuge loss, and water quality degradation.