Manatee Conservation in Florida

The Florida manatee is protected statewide by the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act, which makes all of Florida a refuge and sanctuary for the species, and federally by the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act (FWC Manatee Program).

The state law is subsection 2 of section 379.2431, Florida Statutes. It declares the State of Florida a refuge and sanctuary for the manatee, the Florida state marine mammal, and says these protections do not depend on the animal's state or federal listing status (Florida Statutes). It is unlawful in Florida to intentionally or negligently annoy, molest, harass or disturb a manatee, or to injure, capture, pursue or kill one, without a permit. FWC notes that Florida manatees were first protected through Florida law in 1893 (FWC).

The federal status is threatened, with a change pending. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the West Indian manatee is currently considered one species and federally listed as threatened, and it has proposed separate listings: the Florida manatee as threatened with a blanket 4(d) rule and the Antillean manatee as endangered (USFWS). That proposal was published in the Federal Register on January 14, 2025 as 90 FR 3131, with comments closing March 17, 2025 (Federal Register). As of October 15, 2026 the USFWS FAQ still describes it as a proposed rule.

The earlier downgrade is part of the record. FWC says the Florida manatee population grew to a minimum of 8,350 animals and the species was reclassified from endangered to threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in May 2017 (FWC Manatee Program).

FWC's most recent statewide survey, flown in 2021 and 2022, estimates 8,350 to 11,730 manatees in Florida, with separate ranges for the west and east coasts (FWC abundance estimate).

The range is a 95 percent Bayesian credible interval, not a head count. FWC flew the west coast survey December 1 to 15, 2021 and the east coast survey November 30 to December 6, 2022 (FWC FWRI). FWC adds a caution worth repeating: the 2021 to 2022 interval is higher than the 2015 to 2016 interval of 7,520 to 10,280, but the two overlap, so the Florida population could have either increased or decreased between surveys.

Cold sets where they are. Florida manatees cannot tolerate water below 68 degrees Fahrenheit for long, so in winter cold keeps the population mostly in peninsular Florida, where many rely on warm water from natural springs, power plant outfalls and passive thermal basins, while in warm months the range may stretch to Texas and Delaware Bay (USFWS). FWC says there is little movement between the coasts, which supports an east-west division for management purposes (FWC abundance estimate).

FWC recorded 632 manatee deaths in Florida in 2025, and its preliminary 2026 table lists 502 deaths from January 1 through October 9, 2026, including 94 from watercraft collisions (FWC 2025 review, FWC preliminary 2026 table).

The 2025 total was below the five-year average of 731 but higher than 2023 and 2024, when 555 and 565 carcasses were recorded (FWC 2025 Manatee Mortality in Review). FWC names a colder winter, a red tide bloom, and calf and watercraft deaths as the main factors. Cold stress was diagnosed in 33 of 213 necropsied carcasses longer than 150 cm with a known cause, 50 deaths were attributed to a southwest Florida red tide, mostly in Lee County, and 136 dead calves were above the five-year average of 106.

Boats are the trend to watch in 2026. Total Florida deaths through October 9 are below the five-year average for the same period, but the 94 watercraft deaths are above that average of 80 and above every year in the table (FWC preliminary 2026 table). In 2025, watercraft collisions were 25 percent of causes of death in necropsied carcasses (98 cases), and FWC and partners rescued 33 live manatees with watercraft injuries, the highest number on record (FWC 2025 review). FWC labels the 2026 figures preliminary and posts monthly data on its 2026 mortality page (FWC FWRI), so totals can change as cases are finalized. The table itself warns that necropsy response since 2020 has differed from earlier years, so rises or falls in known-cause numbers may not be a true change (FWC preliminary 2026 table).

Starvation caused by seagrass loss in the Indian River Lagoon drove an Unusual Mortality Event on Florida's Atlantic coast from December 1, 2020 to April 30, 2022, when 1,255 manatee carcasses were documented and 137 manatees were rescued (FWC).

A federal working group confirmed in 2021 that the Atlantic coast deaths met the criteria for an Unusual Mortality Event, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued the declaration; a joint FWC and USFWS team found that starvation due to lack of forage in the Indian River Lagoon caused the high mortality (FWC FWRI). The event was administratively closed on March 14, 2025, after researchers had gone two years without documenting a starvation death linked to lack of forage.

The response was unusual too. FWC and USFWS ran a supplemental feeding trial in the winters of 2021 to 2022 and 2022 to 2023, and staff and volunteers supplied at least 600,000 pounds of leafy greens at the feeding site (FWC FWRI). The Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership, a cooperative of 24 organizations, cared for a record number of ill and injured Florida manatees during the event.

Recovery shows in the calves. FWC's 2025 review says reproduction resumed in the Indian River Lagoon when nutritional condition improved in 2023, many new calves were born there over the two years before the review, and small calf carcasses on the Atlantic coast fell from 105 in 2024 to 81 in 2025 (FWC 2025 review). The water quality side of the story is covered in the Digital Towns guide to the Indian River Lagoon system.

Manatee protection zones are FWC rules, adopted under the Manatee Sanctuary Act and printed in Chapter 68C-22 of the Florida Administrative Code, that limit boat speed and operation, and in key areas entry, where Florida manatees face collisions or harassment (FWC protection zones).

Zones are set county by county. Before FWC proposes new or changed zones, the Manatee Sanctuary Act requires it to notify the affected county, which has 60 days to form a Local Rule Review Committee of waterway users to review the proposal (FWC). Local governments can also create zones by ordinance, but FWC must approve them, and local zones cannot cover the main marked channel of the Florida Intracoastal Waterway or waters within 100 feet of it.

FWC posts zone maps for each county on its data and maps page, alongside federal manatee protection areas and state boating restricted areas where they overlap (FWC Data and Maps). The statute also requires the counties named in the October 1989 Governor and Cabinet Policy Directive to adopt manatee protection plans approved by the FWC (Florida Statutes).

In Florida, look at manatees but do not touch, feed or give them water, keep out of No Entry manatee refuges, and report a distressed or dead manatee, or a violation such as harassment, to FWC at 888-404-FWCC (888-404-3922) (FWC viewing guidelines, FWC).

FWC explains the feeding rule plainly: manatees that get used to people can lose their natural fear of boats and humans, which raises their risk (FWC viewing guidelines). No Entry refuges are areas the FWC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have identified as crucial for manatee survival. The Crystal River and Kings Bay area is the only place in Florida where swimmers are monitored around manatees, and its sanctuary rules and volunteer directions apply there.

Cell phone users can also reach the FWC by dialing #FWC or *FWC (FWC Manatee Program). USFWS lists collisions with watercraft, loss of forage and warm water, fishing gear entanglement, and crushing in locks and water control structures among the human-related threats to the West Indian manatee (USFWS).

Last verified: October 15, 2026, on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Federal Register and Florida Legislature websites.