Over 1,000 manatees, out of a population of about 8,000 manatees died in 2021, most of starvation. Their main food source, see grass, has been impacted by pollution from farmers and from development near the coasts. What has the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FFWC) done to save the manatees? NOTHING.

[UPDATE: Late in 2021, they started to feed the manatees in the Indian River Lagoon, the area that has been impacted the worst. However, manatees are starving in other parts of the state, too. They all need help.]

The people who are supposed to manage and conserve the endangered manatees should be FIRED due to their incompetence. They spend hour after hour, day after day, and week after week in meetings. The one thing they could do to save the manatees - FEED THEM - they don't do.

When people around the world were starving, the federal government airlifted food for them. During Operation Haylift, in 1949, the federal government and the Montana government delivered hundreds of tons of hay as well as cottonseed cake and alfalfa by air and toboggan to prevent cows, deer, elk, and antelope from starving during a terrible blizzard. Yet Florida does NOTHING to stop over 1,000 manatees from starving.

Florida's government needs to stop counting dead manatees and instead FEED THEM. Manatees can thrive on Romaine lettuce, kale, beets, carrots, and red apples. In fact, that is the diet that is provided to the two well-fed manatees at the Mote Marine Laboratory.

If the government of Florida is too cheap to pay for the produce, FFWC can ask farmers and residents of Florida to donate them. We the People demand that the state stop wasting time and start feeding the manatees. NOT ONE MORE DEAD MANATEE!

We also declare that we will feed the manatees ourselves as long as the state fails to do its duty to protect and conserve our endangered wildlife.