Florida manatees face chronic welfare harms from boat propeller strikes that scar and injure thousands of individuals, and from cold stress syndrome as water temperatures drop in winter months.
Manatee welfare is compromised by the pervasive nature of human threats in their coastal habitat. Boat strikes cause acute trauma — propeller cuts can be extremely painful, and skeletal injuries cause lasting impairment of mobility. Cold stress syndrome causes physiological distress, behavioral disorientation, and death in severe cases. Red tide toxins cause paralysis and drowning in affected manatees. The population of roughly 8,000 individuals is small enough that each injury or death is significant, and individual manatees are often known by name to researchers and wildlife managers. Rehabilitation of injured manatees by SeaWorld Orlando and other facilities demonstrates the feasibility of treatment, but prevention through boating speed restrictions in manatee zones is far more welfare-effective.