On February 16th, the Police Department wrote inaccurate statments on their Facebook which read:
PLEASE DO NOT ATTEMPT TO FEED MANATEES WATER HYACINTH!
Water hyacinth is being dumped into the DeSoto Park canal, and other waterways in the city, in an attempt to feed the manatees. Feeding manatees is illegal, and water hyacinth is also illegal to possess in Florida because it is a highly invasive plant!
Water hyacinth can completely take over the canal, infest the wetlands, and outcompete our native aquatic species. It will reduce oxygen levels for native fish, and create an ideal habitat for disease-carrying mosquitoes.
For information on how to help the manatee population, please visit the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website.
Katrina Shadix of Bear Warriors United Responded:
Satellite Beach Police, can you make a post about the DeSoto Canal manatees that are starving to death in your city?
I have several pictures of a manatee in the throes of death, writhing in pain, in your DeSoto Canal last week. He/she died from starvation.
Hundreds of manatees have starved to death because of the human sewage pollution and Lawn chemicals that have killed the Indian River Lagoon ecosystem killing the sea grass which is the manatees main food source in the northern IRL.
Also can you do a post about all of the lawn chemicals going into the DeSoto Canal from the backyards of the adjacent houses? (Here is a link to a video)
Glyphosate is the deadly chemical in weed killer Roundup and in the aquatic herbicides used by cities to kill manatees’ natural food sources hyacinths and hydrilla; and tragically glyphosate has been found in the blood of the majority of manatees tested.
It’s a violation of The Endangered Species Act to poison manatees and their food and it’s a violation of The Endangered Species Act to not feed the manatees during this federally declared starvation mortality event .
“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.”
-Thomas Jefferson
Whomever gave the starving DeSoto Canal manatees hydrilla (their natural food source):
THANK YOU!!! YOU ARE A HERO!!
t is a VERY concerning situation if the City of Satellite Beach removed any of the manatees’ food in the manatees’ warm water DeSoto canal refuge.
To spend energy and resources into taking food away from a starving federally protected species is not only immoral, it’s a violation of Section 9 of The Endangered Species Act.
All energy and resources should be invested in getting nutritious, natural food (like hyacinths, hydrilla, eelgrass) to the starving animals and preventing their starvation.
Stop The Starve 