The starvation of hundreds of manatees in the 150-mile-long Indian River Lagoon (IRL) along Florida’s Atlantic coast made global headlines in 2021. To reduce the chances of it reoccurring in 2022, FWC and USFWS decided to feed wild manatees in the northern IRL during the 2022 winter. No one knew if wild manatees would take to lettuce, and for the first few anxious weeks, they didn’t.
But then they caught on quickly. Over two winters, IRL manatees ate 600,000 pounds of romaine and butter lettuce near Florida Power & Light’s Clean Energy Center in Cape Canaveral, where manatees gather every winter in the warmed waters. Our Foundation purchased the vast majority of those pounds using donations from individuals, foundations, and businesses throughout the United States and abroad.
We were able to stay two to three weeks ahead of the grocery bills, ensuring an unbroken daily diet of nutrient-rich veggies. Once spring came, the manatees dispersed to the open ocean and estuaries elsewhere. Although it’s difficult to know how many manatees were saved, mortality rates dropped from 2021, and manatees in and around the IRL in the late fall looked better nourished than previously. By the winter of 2024, IRL manatees had recovered enough to not need winter feeding.
