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Manatees Could Lose Endangered Status Article Courtesy: floridatoday.com | By: Jim Waymer | Originally Published: December 30, 2015
The sea cow morphed into a sacred cow of sorts over the past half century. But Florida’s most iconic creature could soon flop down a peg from the lofty status it’s held since America’s original list of endangered species was created in 1967.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expects by fall 2016 to propose a rule to reclassify the Florida manatee from “endangered” to a less-serious status of “threatened.”
The move first would require a public input process and could face lengthy legal challenges.
The wildlife service assures the change wouldn’t dismantle slow-speed zones or lessen other protections for the species and only reflects the improvements to its numbers in recent years. But manatee advocates worry the reclassification would forge a slippery slope of deregulation that would eventually gut vital protections before serious threats to the species have been addressed.
The feds assert it won’t.
“Generally, the level of protection doesn’t change,” said Jeff Fleming, a spokesman with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “In some cases there are some opportunities to do some different things … with exemptions.”
The manatee’s listing status governs how state and federal agencies handle boating speed limits, dock and dredging permits and access to areas manatees frequent.
Word of the potential reclassification came via a Nov. 19 notice within an 181-page semiannual agenda of rules that federal agencies intend to review or develop between fall 2015 and fall 2016. The agenda lists the best guesses of what the wildlife service will do. But the reclassification to “threatened” is by no means a done deal, wildlife service officials said.
“We believe that a reduction in threats has resulted in an improvement in the species’ status such that the endangered designation may no longer correctly reflect the current status of manatee,” the notice states.
In July 2014, the wildlife service announced the agency would move forward on a status review for the manatee, in response to a 2012 petition to reclassify the species, from “endangered” to “threatened.”

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