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Florida’s Endangered Manatees May Get New Habitat Protection

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that new critical habitat protections may be warranted for the Florida manatee. The notice, published in today”s Federal Register, is in response to a petition to revise the manatee”s critical habitat filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Save the Manatee Club, and the Wildlife Advocacy Project. According to the petition, manatees need new protected habitat because a vast body of science has developed about what areas are essential to the survival of manatees since the critical habitat was originally designated in 1976. Patti Thompson, a leading manatee biologist who co-authored the petition for the Wildlife Advocacy Project, said she is “pleased that the Service is moving forward with this long overdue strengthening of the manatee’s habitat designation. Our petition is designed not only to update the geographic areas using the latest available scientific information, but also to address the absence in the current designation of required ‘constituent elements’ that must be protected, such as warm water, travel corridors, and food sources. Although these omissions were understandable when manatee critical habitat was first designated more than 30 years ago, it is vitally important that the designation now be based on the best science available.” … Read Full Article

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