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Warm weather thwarts aerial survey of manatees

By Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer
In print: Tuesday, April 15, 2008

To do an aerial count of manatees, scientists need certain weather conditions.
	[Associated Press file photo]

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ST. PETERSBURG — For the first time since 1994, Florida's annual aerial survey of manatees has been canceled. The cause: too much warm weather.

The aerial survey, overseen by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute in St. Petersburg, has been going on since 1991.

It involves up to 60 scientists from federal, state and county agencies, as well as nonprofit groups like Mote Marine Laboratory, working together to tote up how many manatees they can spot from circling airplanes or helicopters.

The survey is designed to take advantage of winter weather, when cold-sensitive manatees gather at warm-water sites like power plant discharges.

But for the counts to be accurate, scientists say they need certain weather conditions, such as clear skies and temperatures below 50 degrees for three days.

When conditions are not perfect, not as many manatees show up in the survey. So after beginning the aerial surveys with flights in 1991 and 1992, state scientists skipped surveys in 1993 and 1994 because the weather was too warm.

However, the Legislature then mandated a survey every year, resulting in big fluctuations from year to year as conditions changed and counting methods improved.

A survey in January 1998 found 2,018 manatees, while a survey in January 1999 found only 1,865. The record, hit in January 2001, is 3,300. Last year's count, taken at the end of January, found 2,817.

State officials had hoped to unveil a new method of counting manatees this year, one that used a computer program to estimate how many manatees might be missed by the aerial census takers, said Holly Edwards of the institute.

Despite the warm weather, they did fly a tryout version of the new method, she said, but results are still being processed.