[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 247 (Tuesday, December 27, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-31737]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: December 27, 1994]


-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Fish and Wildlife Service

 

Availability of Draft Recovery Plan Revision for the Florida 
Manatee for Review and Comment

AGENCY: Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice of document availability.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) announces the 
availability for public review of a technical/agency draft recovery 
plan: the second revision of the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus 
latirostris) Recovery Plan.
    The Service solicits review and comment from the public on this 
plan.

DATES: Comments on the draft recovery plan revision must be received on 
or before February 27, 1995 to receive consideration by the Service.

ADDRESSES: Persons wishing to review the draft recovery plan may obtain 
a copy by contacting the Florida State Administrator, Jacksonville 
Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 6620 South Point Dr., 
South, Suite 310, Jacksonville, Florida 32216 (Telephone: 904-232-
2580). Written comments and materials regarding the plan should be 
addressed to David J. Wesley, Florida State Administrator, at the above 
Jacksonville, Florida address. Comments and materials received are 
available upon request for public inspection, by appointment, and 
during normal business hours at the above Jacksonville, Florida 
address.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Robert O. Turner, Manatee Coordinator at the Jacksonville, Florida, 
address (Telephone: 904-232-2580).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Restoring endangered or threatened animals and plants to the point 
where they are again secure self-sustaining members of their ecosystems 
is a primary goal of the Service's endangered species program. To help 
guide the recovery effort the Service is working to prepare recovery 
plans for most of the listed species native to the United States. 
Recovery Plans describe actions necessary for the conservation of the 
species, establish criteria for the recovery levels for downlisting or 
delisting them, and estimate time and cost for implementing the 
recovery measures needed.
    The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Act), as amended (16 U.S.C. 
1531 et seq.) requires the development of recovery plans for listed 
species unless such a plan would not promote the conservation of a 
particular species. Section 4(f) of the Act, as amended in 1988, 
requires that public notice, and an opportunity for public review and 
comment be provided during recovery plan development. The Service will 
consider all information presented during a public comments period 
prior to approval of each new or revised recovery plan. The Service and 
other Federal agencies will take these comments into account in the 
course of implementing approved recovery plans.
    The Florida Manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, was 
originally listed under the Endangered Species Act on March 11, 1967. 
The Service developed an initial recovery plan for manatees in 1980. 
The 1980 plan focused primarily, but not exclusively, on manatees in 
Florida. In 1986 the Service adopted a separate Recovery Plan for 
manatees in Puerto Rico. To reflect new information and planning needs 
for manatees in Florida, the Service revised the original plan in 1989 
focusing exclusively on Florida's manatees. The revised plan covered a 
five-year planning period ending in Fiscal Year 1994. In view of 
progress since 1989 and planning needs beyond 1994, the Service is once 
again updating and revising the plan.
    West Indian manatees are also protected under the Marine Mammal 
Protection Act of 1972, as amended (16 U.S.C. 1461 et seq.). This Act 
establishes the objective of continued maintenance of the health and 
stability of marine ecosystems, and whenever consistent with this 
primary objective, obtaining and maintaining optimum sustainable 
populations of marine mammals. It also establishes a moratorium, with 
certain exceptions, on harassing, hunting, capturing, killing, or 
attempting to harass, hunt, capture, or kill any marine mammal. Section 
115(b) requires that conservation plans be developed for marine 
mammals, including West Indian manatees, considered ``depleted'' under 
the Act. The purpose of conservation plans is to identify actions 
needed to restore species or populations to optimum sustainable 
population levels as defined under the Act. The revised recovery plan 
meets this planning requirement.
    The Florida manatee is found primarily in coastal areas of Florida 
and southeast Georgia, although individuals range seasonally westward 
into Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana on the Gulf coast and north 
through the Carolinas, into Virginia and Chesapeake Bay along the east 
coast.
    Manatees are large aquatic herbivores that feed opportunistically 
on a wide variety of submerged, floating, and emergent vegetation in 
marine and freshwater habitats. This includes seagrasses, emergent 
vascular plants, benthic algae, and various floating plants. Shallow 
grass beds with ready access to deep channels are preferred feeding 
areas. Manatees frequent canals, creeks, embayments, and lagoons, 
particularly near the mouths of coastal rivers and sloughs, for 
feeding, resting, cavorting, mating, and calving.
    When ambient water temperatures drop below 20  deg.C (68  deg.F) in 
autumn and winter, manatees aggregate at natural or artificial warm 
water refuges or move to southern Florida. Most artificial refuges are 
created by warm water outfalls at power plants or paper mills. Large 
winter aggregations of 50 or more animals occur at these sites in 
central and southern Florida, and several smaller aggregations with 15 
or fewer animals in northern Florida and southern Georgia on the east 
coast. The northernmost refuge used regularly on the west coast is at 
Crystal River. Most manatees utilize the same warm water refuges each 
year. Some individuals use different refuges from year to year while 
others use two or more refuges during the same winter.
    During summer months, manatees may be found almost anywhere in 
Florida where water depths are greater than 1-2 meters. They normally 
occur alone or in pairs, although interacting groups of five to ten 
animals are not unusual (in mating herd situations, for example).
    Efforts have been made to develop a reliable estimate of manatee 
abundance in Florida. When conditions are favorable a statewide aerial 
count of manatees at significant aggregation sites is conducted 
following winter cold fronts, to assure the greatest likelihood that as 
many individual manatees as possible will be at these sites. The 
highest single-day count of manatees from a statewide aerial survey is 
1,856 animals in January 1992.
    The long-term survival of manatees in Florida is uncertain. Known 
mortality, which averaged over 170 animals per year between 1988 and 
1992, is more than double what it was in the late 1970s. Because of 
current population size estimates and the species' relatively low 
reproductive rate (manatees produce only a single calf every 2.5-5 
years per mature female), present mortality may exceed the populations' 
ability to produce new animals. The major threats to Florida manatees 
are collisions with watercraft, which account for about 25 percent of 
known manatee deaths in Florida annually, and destruction and 
degradation of habitat caused by widespread development throughout much 
of the species' Florida range.
    Data on manatee mortality in the Southeastern U.S. has been 
collected since 1974 and indicates a clear increase in manatee deaths 
over the last 15 years. Although both natural and human-related causes 
are significant components of manatee mortality, most of the increase 
in mortality can be attributed to increases in watercraft-related 
deaths and perinatal deaths.
    A prominent cause of natural mortality in some years in cold 
stress. Following a severe winter cold spell in 1989, 46 manatee 
carcasses whose death was attributed to cold stress were recovered. 
Significant mortality from exposure to cold also occurred in the 
winters of 1977, 1981, and 1984.
    The revised plan is based on recommendations of the Florida Manatee 
Recovery Team.

Public Comments Solicited

    The Service solicits written comments on the revised recovery plan 
described. All comments received by the date specified will be 
considered prior to the approval of the plan.

    Authority: The authority for this action is section 4(f) of the 
Endangered Species Act, 16 U.S.C. 1533(f).
David J. Wesley,
Florida State Administrator.
[FR Doc. 94-31737 Filed 12-23-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-55-M