How to protect your offshore neighbors Whales – during calving season, from November to April Stay at least 500 yards away – it’s the law Keep boat speed below 10 knots – even huge cargo ships cut their speed during calving season. Wear polarized sunglasses to aid vision and keep a vigilant watch If fishing off shore, start out earlier so you can travel slower Sea Turtles – during nesting season, from May to October Never disturb them or their nests Cut the lights at the beach at night, or be subject to fines To find out about Turtle Watch activities, visit www.ameliaislandseaturtlewatch.com Manatees – summer and warm months in spring and fall Go slow in harbors and rivers. They swim close to the surface, usually just having their nose or mouth above water Don’t feed or spray water at them or get too close All shore life Leave wildlife alone. Don’t feed, get close, chase, or harass Avoid boat travel at night and during fog and low-visibility conditions Dispose of used fishing line, plastic garbage, bags, and other trash properly If you see an injured animal, call the NOAA hotline: 1-877-433-8299, or Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission: 1-888-404-FWCC Adult manatee swimming in Florida waters
with a boat just 36 feet long can be fatal to a right whale. Smaller boats can kill or maim a calf, or a manatee, another endangered mammal found in our waters and one that has also been a subject of Zoodsma’s research. Manatees, the clumsy-looking aquatic relatives to elephants, migrate from southern waters to feed and breed in our rivers and bays in the summer. These chunky vegetarians, sometimes called sea cows, can weigh over 1,000 pounds and devour up to 100 pounds of sea grass a day. They prefer shallow waters and need temperatures of at least 68 degrees to survive. If the water stays warm in the fall, they may stick around longer than is prudent. One group of manatees perished here in the 1990’s, Zoodsma recalls. They wintered over in Fernandina harbor keeping warm in water discharged from a local industrial plant. “When the plant reduced its warm discharges in the mid-
90’s, it was hoped that the manatees would move south, but unfortunately they didn’t,” she explains. “Many of them died.” From this sad experience, Zoodsma and her colleagues learned lessons that may help protect other manatees from a similar fate. At this time, the manatee population seems to be slowly stabilizing. Entanglements in fishing gear, ingestion of plastics and fishing lines, and boat collisions are serious manmade threats to all these beloved animals. Sea turtles face additional hazards, due to shoreline development in their nesting spots. It is estimated that fewer than one out of 1,000 turtle hatchlings survive to adulthood. Will today’s efforts be enough to save these extraordinary species from extinction? We can only hope that with care, protection, and incredible luck, these marine marvels will stage a comeback, and keep coming back to the waters off Amelia Island.
16 AMELIA ISLANDER MAGAZINE • AUGUST 2012
At this time, the manatee population seems to be slowly stabilizing.
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