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Melanie Cole (Host): Manatees are just one representative of the multi-layered problems in Florida's aquatic systems. And all of the animals involved that are affected negatively by us can be improved by us. Our job in science and medicine is to help discover and understand, then honestly and accurately, point out what's going on in life and how to make it better. We're talking today about what makes a manatee's life difficult and how science can help. Welcome to UF Vet Med Voice with the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine.

I'm Melanie Cole and joining me today is Dr. Michael T. Walsh. He's a Clinical Associate Professor in Aquatic Animal Health with the UF College of Veterinary Med. Dr. Walsh, it's a pleasure to have you join us today. Can you start by telling us a little bit about your background and your history in the veterinary field with manatees and a little bit about what makes their lives so difficult?

Michael T. Walsh, DVM (Guest): Sure. Well, my background in this actually originated as a result of coming here to do a residency in zoo and wildlife medicine a number of years ago. I got the chance to actually spend some time at SeaWorld of Orlando. And that's where I got my first real exposure to manatees because those animals were involved in a rescue and rehab program that was there. And then by chance, a few years later, partially because I got to know those people, I took a job there as a veterinarian and was full-time at SeaWorld for 20 years. So, I helped to develop some of the manatee response programs and got to know a lot of the problems that they deal with here in Florida, treatments that we could come up with and gave me some insight in terms of where some of the big challenges were that were going to lay ahead.

Host: Wow. That is quite a background. Very impressive. And makes you certainly the consummate expert on our topic today. So, what are some of the threats to the survival of manatees? And can you tell us about some of the other issues that affect Florida waterways?

Dr. Walsh: Well, when you look at manatees and their history in Florida, they've been around for tens of thousands of years. In fact, at one point we actually had another representative of the group they fit into the Sirenia which manatees fall under called the dugong. They're actually dugongs in Florida, thousands of years ago. The manatee ends up finding Florida is kind of its natural normal range going from a Northern latitude. And that's mainly because of the cold water that can affect these individuals. So, they are trapped by the seasonal cold water to have to come back to warmer water during the winter time, which limits their range during that part of the season.

But during the summer and fall, they may range all the way up to New York and around to Texas and then migrating back and forth as they look at what happens with the environment and the temperatures that control them. They're part of a number of different species that fit into that Sirenia group, which includes other groups, such as the West African Manatee, the Amazonian Manatee, and the Florida Manatee is one of two subspecies that actually are in this area. In the Caribbean, there is a subspecies that is closely related to them. And then we have the Florida group that sticks mainly here, but that doesn't really deter some of the explorers in the group from reaching out and mixing with those other groups. We've had Florida manatees that have gone to Cuba or to the Bahamas, and probably elsewhere that we're not even aware of in terms of expanding what they're interested in, just like we do.

Host: That's so interesting Dr. Walsh and Florida stands to lose more than its state marine mammal, if manatees go extinct, correct. Tell us how the issues we're discussing are disrupting freshwater and saltwater sanctuaries, killing off fish and other species and mucking up the water that millions rely on for their livelihoods.

Dr. Walsh: Well, if you look at the challenges that Florida faces with its manatees, it really fits into a number of categories that they use to try to understand what's impacting them. And that involves things like watercraft, floodgates, and locks. There's other human relationships. We lose a percentage of newborns every year, just like you would in any wild species. So, you have a perinatal category. Cold stress is a problem because of that Northern limitation. And it tends to hit young animals who don't know how to really deal with it in their first year or so on their own. There's other natural processes. And then you see that there are undetermined causes or animals that may not get evaluated or necropsied that can add to that.

So, what we're currently dealing with is all of those different factors are factors that can influence their survival. And when you look at what's considered another natural factor, that might involve such things as red tide, which is a harmful algael bloom species. And when you're dealing with that at the same time, we potentially challenge them with other types of negative factors. And the one we're currently looking at now with the loss of sea grasses, we tend to tip the scale in terms of what the species can handle. They're taking on the cold. They're taking on red tide in some sections. Now they're taking on a lack of food in another section, which has led to the highest level of manatees lost in only seven months compared to any previous year.

Host: Wow. So, medicine, research and science don't work well in a vacuum, Dr. Walsh. Without the movement to solutions that you are discussing and have been researching for so many years in partnership with the people, how do you see that happening? What are some initiatives or projects to protect that might help to motivate communities and the aquatic experts to work together?

Dr. Walsh: Well, it'll be helpful to probably give you a little review of who's involved. Cause there's a lot of players when you're looking at manatees. They're a federally listed species and the Fish and Wildlife Service is actually the group that's responsible for them. But here in the state of Florida, we also have the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, usually shortened to FWC, that has some branches under it, the Florida Marine Research Institute and the Marine Mammal Pathobiology Lab that are intricate in terms of protecting the Florida manatee from the state level, they are the best relationship in terms of supporters for the manatee in partnership with the federal agency that we deal with closely.

Then you add to that some private organizations who are quite interested in the manatee. There's a Save the Manatee Club that's been very very involved over the years in terms of helping to support the manatee. You have the ocean areas such as SeaWorld, Jacksonville zoo, Tampa zoo, Miami Seaquarium, and a number of other places that can hold animals that have been injured and just need extra time for care.

You've got the general public, the media, and then you've got some other government agencies such as the Marine Mammal Commission. So, you can see there's a lot of players involved that help us in terms of approaching these problems. And you add to that other parts of their organizations. There are people that have been studying sea grass for many years in FWC and in the USGS Sirenia Project, which has been another site that has really contributed so much to our knowledge of the manatee base.

So, we're lucky to have such a large close knit well-working group of organizations that can attack problems. This one that we're currently dealing with now is something we've never really dealt with directly before. So, it's impacting the manatees in a different way and challenging all those groups to be able to respond so that we can hopefully restore what's going on in the environment to support them as well as deal with those who are being affected until we can restore the environmental relationships.

Host: So, how do you see the communities being involved as some of the threats involve people, boats, nets, all of these other things. What can be done? What are you looking at in the future and hoping for, for the manatees?

Dr. Walsh: Well, one of the great advantages of being at a university is we have the ability to reach out to a number of different groups that can contribute in ways that some of the outside groups can't. So, when you look at the problems that we're facing, they're really ecosystem problems. And the manatee is really the canary in the waterways for us letting us know that things have gotten to a point where we've got to approach those issues, from the standpoint of having adequate funding, having the research done, having the support to intervene when there's a human related issue, which is really what we're dealing with. There are human related issues in that short list of mortality factors we dealt with. You can have animals that can get caught in monofilament line. They can swallow fishing hooks. You can have them affected directly by boats. Those are human related issues. If you look at the larger ecosystem issues, those are also human impacted issues that we have to deal with.

So, over time, if we allow degradation of an environment from the addition of sewage, extra nutrients that come into that environment and tip the balance between the natural processes out there where sea grasses might do well, let's say with a certain nutrient load that's normally and historically added to the water and we shift that, then we start selecting for other problems. And some of those problems are directly related to what plants do best. Some of them are related to now that we've injected this whole new nutrient relationship into that closed environment, then other organisms take advantage of it. And that's where you'll see the harmful algael blooms take advantage of the increased nutrients that might come from agriculture, from sewage, from septic tanks, from people who are even fertilizing their own lawns, is a possibility. Those things flush into the system either directly or are directly put in, or with the rainy season, that material moves into that area. So, now we've taken that balance that nature made and we've added components that shift it away from the balance that supported manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, fish, and all the others in there.

So, we're seeing an ecosystem problem that has to be approached scientifically as well as from an agency perspective, to make sure that these animals have the potential to make it into the next century.

Host: This is such a fascinating topic, and I certainly applaud all the great work that you're doing. Wrap it up for us, Dr. Walsh, with your best information or advice for other providers on what you'd like them to know about the manatees, the aquatic waterways in Florida, and any initiatives you'd like to mention as ways to get the community involved and get everyone involved to save the manatees.

Dr. Walsh: Wow. That's a long list of possibilities. I think what we're really pushing for on all levels, from all these different groups, is an inclusion of the most brain power possible to be able to look at this from every avenue and from every option to see how we can restabilize the environment. And how we can educate the public to the importance that they are just as integral to the solutions as anybody, because the effects that we currently have on this body of water are not going to be related to just the Indian River Lagoon.

There are problems happening around much of Florida's coastline. And as a result of that, it takes not only those agencies that are in charge of those species to deal with those aspects, but it brings in the need for more information and more research, because this is a multifactorial issue. And we have a tendency in science and in medicine, to diagnose what we look for. And if we only look for this in a very narrow approach, we're going to get narrow answers that may not be adequate to be able to take care of the long-term problems. So, adding in research capability from universities, for instance, we're doing some projects looking at the effect of some of the contaminants that go into the water on sea grass to see, is that a factor. You have the potential for as the humans have gotten more and more involved in boating activity, we had materials such as the sea grasses. We've had the other organisms there that had adapted to things before we got here. We're making a big impact. When we go into that environment with a lot of activity, a lot of movement of the water, we may be adding to some of those other avenues that affect sea grass.

When you have the problem with plants that die off from a harmful algael bloom, for instance, that puts nutrients in the water, but it also changes the relationship between the turbidity of the water. So, those sea grasses, like your house plants need a certain amount of sunlight. If that sunlight does not get to them, they will not do well.

So, if we increase the amount of interference with that light going through the water column, that decreases the ability of the sea grass to respond. If you have too much activity, wave activity in the water, that can also result in an increase in the turbidity or the things that are suspended in the water column that again, interfere with the light. So, there are a lot of things we've gotten used to doing that may be great for us, but we're seeing that if we're sharing the environment, we've got to be able to step back and look at what's really contributing to this and take the time, the effort and the dedication to be able to approach these problems.

And that's where someplace like UF can contribute to figuring out those factors, those cofactors, those little things that are actually parts of the big problem to help make this a long-term solution. In addition, sometimes the hardest thing to face is the expense in taking care of a problem. If we, as humans who we're impacting the environment, treat that environment in such a way that the damage cause isn't a simple solution, we have to be willing to put the effort and the personnel and the funding behind it to truly fix it.

That interferes with people's lives. It interferes with businesses, it interferes with a lot of things. But the very fact that Florida is a place where people come to appreciate the wild environment and to appreciate what goes on in that area. And there's a gigantic economic impact related to the damage that's been done to these different coastal areas, not only from recreational fishing, commercial fishing, and just the people that want to come here on vacation. We have not only an obligation, perhaps a moral one, at least to the animals to reestablish what's necessary for them. But it's also in our best interests to be able to keep Florida as that primary spot that people love to live in as well as to visit.

So, we can certainly achieve all those things. You look at some of these things and you look back on the history of how we've dealt with environmental issues, we've also got so much potential within the college and the university to be able to start thinking that we no longer have wild areas. It's unfortunate, but everything is managed now. And it's obvious that we have been badly managing our ecosystems, especially the aquatic ones surrounding Florida. We have organizations within the university, such as IFAS, who have a long history of helping to manage, for instance, these wild environments and understand them better.

Some people are thinking now that sea grass is really an area that needs to be looked at similar to what you do when you're thinking of forests. We're now in the process of managing most of our forests. And we need to start looking at managing those aquatic forests as well. So, the expertise in the IFAS related areas, and we have people who are seagrass experts, can help to point us in a better direction of how we're going to deal with this loss.

We'd love to come back and update you on how this is progressing and where it's going, because it's a long-term problem and we're entering or getting ready to enter into another winter soon. And the question is, will it be the same as this last year or will it be worse? So, it'll be a long story that would be worth following.

Host: Very well said. Such great information on how we can work together to improve the lives of manatees and our other treasured species in the aquatic systems and how science can help. Thank you so much, Dr. Walsh for for joining us today and sharing your incredible expertise. That concludes today's episode of UF Vet Med Voice brought to you by the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, advancing animal, human and environmental health.

For more information, please visit aquatic.vetmed.ufl.edu. I'm Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for tuning in today.