Boat strikes are the leading cause of manatee injury and death in Florida, causing traumatic injuries that require extensive rehabilitation and often prove fatal.
Manatees struck by boat propellers experience traumatic lacerations, crush injuries, and internal hemorrhage causing severe suffering before death or recovery. Surviving strike victims often carry lifelong disabilities including partial flipper loss, bone damage, and chronic wound complications. The rehabilitation period after serious strikes extends to months or years in specialist facilities. Cold stress syndrome causes immune compromise, pneumonia, and skin lesions as manatees struggle to maintain body temperature in unusually cold water. Both threats are anthropogenic - boat strikes from recreational boating and cold stress exacerbated by reliance on power plant warm water discharge threatened by facility closures.