Manatees face significant challenges, including:
- Boat strikes: Manatees are slow-moving and often blend in with the water, making them difficult to see for boaters. Boat strikes are the manatees’ leading cause of death.
- Habitat loss: Manatees need warm, shallow water to survive. As land development continues, more and more of their habitat is being lost.
- Pollution: Manatees are susceptible to significant pollutants, including oil, pesticides, and fertilizers. These pollutants can harm their health and even kill them.
- Climate change: Climate change is causing the water temperatures in manatee habitats to rise. This is making it more difficult for manatees to find food and survive.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently released its 2025 Manatee Mortality Report, offering important insights into the challenges these gentle marine mammals continue to face. Here’s what you should know:
In 2025, 632 manatees were documented dead across Florida. This number is below the recent five-year average of 731 but still represents an increase compared to 2023 and 2024. A colder-than-normal winter early in the year led to a rise in deaths from cold stress.
Collisions with watercraft remain a major human-related threat, accounting for about 25 % of known manatee deaths in fully examined cases, and rescue teams also treated a record number of injured manatees from boat collisions
A red tide bloom in Southwest Florida contributed to 50 deaths. Thankfully, the bloom dissipated before spring, avoiding a larger die-off like those seen in past years. 136 manatee calves were found dead, which is above the recent average. However, this is linked to a return to stronger reproduction after earlier years of low calf numbers.
Although total mortality in 2025 was lower than recent averages, manatees are still facing significant natural and human-related dangers. This data highlights why continued conservation efforts — safe boating practices, habitat protection, and water quality work — remain critical to protecting Florida’s manatees.
You can read the full report here:
https://myfwc.com/research/manatee/rescue-mortality-response/statistics/mortality/2025/review/
How can we protect Manatees?
Manatees are difficult for boaters to see. Boater vigilance is vital, since marine-craft strikes are a leading cause of manatee deaths.
- Support the many organizations working to protect manatees, You can donate money, volunteer your time, or simply spread the word about their work
- Reducing our use of pollutants, including oil, pesticides, and fertilizers that can harm their health and even kill them. We can all do our part to reduce our use of pollutants by recycling using fewer pesticides, and reducing how often we fertilize our lawns. Manatees are highly sensitive to these pollutants, harming their health and even causing death.
