Florida manatees face chronic welfare threats from boat propeller strikes and cold stress when warm-water refuges are insufficient, requiring ongoing management and protection.
Manatee welfare is under threat from multiple compounding stressors. Boat propeller strikes cause traumatic injuries — deep lacerations, broken ribs, internal organ damage — that cause prolonged suffering in animals that survive initial impact. Cold stress events, in which manatees mass at warm-water outflows when winter temperatures drop, can still result in cold stunning if outflows are insufficient. The 2021 mass mortality from algal bloom starvation — in which over 1,000 manatees died — represents a welfare crisis driven by coastal eutrophication from agricultural runoff. Protecting manatee welfare requires a combination of boat speed zone enforcement in critical habitat, nutrient pollution reduction, warm-water refuges during cold events, and sea grass habitat restoration that reduces vulnerability to bloom events.