By Stel Bailey | March 2022 – Brevard County, Florida
When Brevard County Commissioner Curt Smith suggested that manatees should be hunted and eaten, it revealed a troubling mindset: one that blames wildlife for a crisis created by people. Florida’s waterways are collapsing, but not because of manatees. They are collapsing under decades of failed policies, unchecked pollution, sewage spills, fertilizer-laden lawns, and rapid development supported by septic tanks. Shifting blame onto a struggling species not only distorts reality, it threatens to derail the urgent work needed to restore the Indian River Lagoon.
The Cost of Human Neglect
Over the last 14 months, I have watched manatees starve in the lagoon as seagrass, their primary food source, disappears. What officials call “rescues” are too often grim recovery missions. Bodies have been pulled from the water, piled on islands, tied to docks, hoisted into trailers, and carried away to landfills. Out of nearly 1,500 manatees lost on the East Coast, only a handful were truly saved. Instead of confronting why these animals are sick and starving, agencies have staged a well-publicized “lettuce drop,” offering an illusion of action while wasting taxpayer money on public relations. The real picture is of manatees left to endure malnourishment, disease, and slow, painful deaths.
Heated Waters, Hidden Deals
The conditions killing manatees are not limited to disappearing seagrass. Thermal pollution from power plants is changing oxygen levels in the water, fueling harmful algal blooms, and disrupting migration patterns. The Cape Canaveral power plant, equipped with millions of dollars in heating infrastructure, has become a winter refuge for manatees, but that refuge is an artificial dependency. These animals should not be tied to the rhythms of industrial machinery.
This dependency was not an accident. When the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, it restricted thermal pollution, yet officials later cut deals with utilities that allowed hot-water discharges to continue under the guise of protecting manatees from cold snaps. The utilities saved billions while passing costs along to customers. They gained good PR, but the lagoon absorbed the damage.
The Real Bill We Pay
Pollution always sends the invoice to communities. Taxpayers are left covering the costs of cleanup, restoration, and emergency measures to save aquatic species. The Indian River Lagoon, declared an estuary of national significance in 1990, has been in decline for generations. Algal blooms have wiped out seagrass. Fisheries and shorebirds have suffered. Today, nearly half of the species that once lived here are gone. Against this backdrop, a call to hunt manatees isn’t just irresponsible; it is a deliberate refusal to reckon with decades of neglect.
A Path Forward
Commissioner Smith, as a board member of the national estuary program, can do more than dismiss wildlife. He can call on state and federal agencies to revisit thermal pollution allowances and confront their ecological consequences. He can meet with organizations like Fight for Zero to work on community education about pollution reduction, water quality, and restoring balance to the ecosystem.
The future of the lagoon will not be secured through scapegoats or publicity stunts. It will depend on people who demand accountability and who are willing to take action at every level, from policy enforcement to individual choices. Manatees are not the enemy; they are the warning signal. And if we fail to protect them, we fail ourselves.