Manatees flee to warmer waters
Unseasonably cold water in the Gulf of Mexico is driving the gentle sea creatures known as Sea Cows or more commonly, Manatees to the warm waters of power plant discharge canals. More than 300 manatees swam into the outflow of Tampa Electric’s Big Bend Power Station in Florida on Tuesday. Manatees cope poorly with cold conditions, which can affect their immune systems and lead to death.
‘Cold stress’ killed large numbers of the gentle sea creatures in 2010. The waters of the Tampa Electric plant are “like a warm bathtub for them,” Wendy Anastasiou, an environmental specialist who has been watching the mammals loll about there, told the Associated Press agency. They’re not blubbery mammals. They’re very lean,” Ms Anastasiou said. “They need a warm place to go.”
Unusual weather patterns are wreaking havoc on Florida’s manatee population, with recorded deaths from cold stress increasing rapidly in recent years.
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Holte Ender
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But but, there is no such thing as climate change. Poor animals having to live where we have managed to screw up their habitats. I watched a show on Sunday about the Sea of Cortez and some CA sea lions that have had to go to deeper waters to feed on some kind of bass, forget which kind, because they are unable to get their sardines due to the nets and lines being cast by fishermen. Such a sad state to destroy the animals, for what? No need to answer, greed and thinking that we humans are the highest on the food chain.
If they had any sense they’d flee to another bloody planet
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Michael Scott. Michael Scott said: RT @madmike1 Manatees flee to warmer waters http://bit.ly/fjcWbR […]
These poor beleaguered critters. Killed by boat propellers, harassed by assholes, and now forced to flee because of global warming and its far reaching consequences. When does this end???
Gentle animals. God help us, or however one sees a solution outside ones immediate self, may it help us. It moves me to tears, creatures caused to suffer and brought to extinction because of our stupidity, our vicious and uncaring stupidity as a species.