Historic $30 million in funding for manatee rescue programs, habitat restoration

FLORIDA – Governor Ron DeSantis has announced his commitment to supporting more than $30 million in the Fiscal Year 2022-23 budget to enhance and expand manatee rescue and rehabilitation efforts and provide habitat restoration for areas where manatees are highly concentrated.

The investment in manatee care and protection is an over $17 million increase over the current year budget, according to the governor.

DeSantis made the announcement while visiting the Manatee Critical Care Center located at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens.

“This historic funding will support important restoration efforts across the state to benefit our manatees and Florida’s natural environment,” said DeSantis.

DeSantis said the $30+ million included in the budget includes:

• $20 million to enhance and expand the network of manatee acute care facilities, restore access to springs, provide habitat restoration in manatee concentrated areas, expand manatee rescue and recovery efforts, and implement pilot projects like the supplemental feeding trials that took place this past winter
• $5.3 million to expand Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) manatee mortality and response efforts, including 12 new positions.
• $160,000 to support increased aerial surveys
• $4.7 million in base funding to support manatee acute care facilities and research, rescue, and conservation activities

“The state is focusing on short and long-term science-based strategies to improve water quality, including expanded monitoring and investment in long-term water quality improvement projects to reduce the amount of nutrients going into our waterways,” said DEP Secretary Shawn Hamilton.

FWC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the formation of a Joint Incident Management Team to address the unusual mortality event for manatees along Florida’s Atlantic coast.

The Joint Incident Management Team has implemented a variety of approaches to bring immediate relief to manatees in need of assistance, including conducting supplemental feeding trials to reduce the number of manatees in need of rescue.

At FPL’s Cape Canaveral Clean Energy Center, a temporary field response station was set up and staff deployed more than 200,000 pounds of produce which fed at least 800 manatees.