Home : Features : Save the Manatee Trust Fund and License Plate : Research Activities

Mortality and Rescue

Information gained through carcass salvage and manatee rescue and rehabilitation is crucial to providing wildlife managers with information about manatee health, mortality factors, life history, and general and reproductive biology.

---

A network of researchers and law enforcement agencies was established in 1974 to recover manatee carcasses and assist injured manatees. The mortality and rescue program now rests largely with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute (FWRI).

FWRI staff members at five coastal field stations respond to all reported carcasses and reports of injured manatees.  These stations are located around the State: Jacksonville, Melbourne, Tequesta, Port Charlotte, and St. Petersburg.  Most recovered carcasses are transported by field personnel from recovery locations to FWRI’s Marine Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory (MMPL), St. Petersburg.  Once at MMPL, carcasses are examined (necropsied) to determine cause of death.  Although MMPL originally was designed to process only 150 carcasses per year, it now regularly processes over 300 annually.  Injured manatees are assisted in the field when possible or transported to one of three licensed critical care facilities in the State, where they are rehabilitated and released as soon as possible.

Information gained through carcass salvage and manatee rescue and rehabilitation is crucial to providing wildlife managers with information about manatee health, mortality factors, life history, and general and reproductive biology.  This program also provides data used in assessing population health and status.

To view highlights from the 2006–2007 fiscal year, download
Mortality and Rescue 2006–2007 Highlights (PDF File—377 KB)

---

To download Adobe Reader visit http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html