Florida manatees gather at warm-water outflows from power plants that are now being retired. Managing this transition protects manatee welfare during cold winters.
The retirement of Florida power plants poses an unexpected manatee welfare challenge. Manatees have come to depend on artificial warm-water outflows as thermal refugia during cold winters. As plants retire, these refuges disappear, potentially exposing aggregated manatees to cold stress events. Managing this transition requires developing natural warm-water refuges, limiting manatee aggregations at remaining warm water sources to prevent disease spread, and planning winter cold-weather response capacity. The welfare implications of industrial retirement — normally a positive environmental development — are complex and require active management for a species already under stress.