Report: Sea cow not endangered (Manatees)

Orlando Sentinel ^ | October 10, 2002 | Alicia A. Caldwell

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Researchers from the Florida Marine Research Institute have recommended that the Florida manatee be downgraded from an endangered species to a threatened one, according to a preliminary report released Wednesday.

The change was recommended because the manatee did not meet the criteria for an endangered species as defined by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission in 1999, said commission research administrator Elsa Haubold.

"The species was not evaluated against the criteria in the first place and probably would not have met [it] ever," Haubold said.

[SunnyUsa]

I think there is a whole industry built up around Saving the Manatees etc....

They won't let go of this 'endangered' status easily!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

 

License Plate			Manatee
Date Enacted			March 16, 1990
Special Fee			$20 annual fee (plus registration fees)
Cumulative Plates issued			504,091
Cumulative Amount Generated (including renewals)			$28,600,882
Sales by county (1997/1998)
Amount Generated in 2001			$2,077,261.48
Amount Generated in 2000			$2,134,745.00
Amount Generated in 1999			$2,157,176.27
Amount Generated in 1998			$2,113,702.12
Amount Generated in 1997			$2,302,308.78
Amount Generated in 1996			$2,396,500.62
Amount Generated in 1995			$2,622,404.50
Amount Generated in 1994			$2,826,525.00
Amount Generated in 1993			$2,829,206.71
Distribution of Special Fee			100% Save the Manatee Trust Fund

Cumulative Totals Updated Quarterly.

Link

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Please let me know if you want on or off my Fla. Freeper "'til election day" ping list.

[Guillermo]

Exactly.

I wonder how many species have actually been taken off the endagered list since its inception?

I doubt very many have.

[NautiNurse]

But...but...but what about all the horror stories about the boats and props?

p.s. I grow romaine lettuce to feed the manatees that visit me here. Had mom and babe last year---cool stuff! They hang out under my boat when it's up on the lift.

[justsomedude]

it's like a 'personal whale.' every state ought to have it's own left wing, self-righteousness-feeding cause celeb that can be used as a political weapon. Soon, cities and even neighborhoods will have them. What a wonderful world, indeed.

cold and misty morning I heard a warning borne in the air; about an age of power where noone had an hour to spare. where the seeds had withered, starving children shivered in the cold. Now their faces captured in the ledgers of the jackals for gold. -- ELP

Sorry. Got whales to save.

"That's the thing about WASPS. They love animals; they hate people." -- Gordon Gekko, Wall Street.

[Rebelbase]

Manatee meat was desribed by early spanish explorers as being quite tasty and highly desireable. Mmmm....manatee meat....Mmmm.....

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

You're right. Check out my post #3. I was shocked that the Orlando Sentinel printed this today. Expect tantrums from the 'outraged' enviral-pols.

[SunnyUsa]

I visited Florida this past summer, did the Sea World thing....kids loved the manatees (they are they freakiest looking animals) Of course we had to have a 'stuffed animal manatee' come home on the plane with us! Rebelbase:

Manatee Meat? yuck!

I bet it's real fatty...I wonder if it tastes like chicken! ;)

[Joe Brower]

ledgers = lenses

[Joe Brower]

Proof once again that fools and their money are soon parted.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

I grow romaine lettuce to feed the manatees that visit me here. Had mom and babe last year---cool stuff! They hang out under my boat when it's up on the lift.

Cool is right! I love 'em, too. They're like pandas...cute and stupid, and there isn't a Floridian who wants them to die. Funneling money to the DNC through their enviral groups using the manatee as bait? We've been snookered.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

"That's the thing about WASPS. They love animals; they hate people." -- Gordon Gekko, Wall Street.

Hey, I thought WASPS were the evil developers, hunters and corporate polluters. I'm confused. {^;

[LibKill]

The really important question is, are they good to eat? :)

I was just kidding. I will go stand in the corner now.

[Rebelbase]

Googling "manatee meat" provided this article from 1997:

BOGOTA (Reuter) - At least four Manatees have been caught and killed by fishermen off Colombia's Caribbean coast over the past month, Bogota's El Tiempo newspaper said Monday.

It said the killings occurred near Cartagena, the country's prime tourist resort, and added that the flesh of of the gregarious sea mammals was being sold on local markets as "pork" to avoid drawing the wrath of local environmentalists.

Many Colombian cookbooks continue to include recipes for Manatee, even though it is one of the world's most endangered species.

One such cookbook, Gran Libro de la Cocina Colombiana, says the fleshy, flippered "sea cows" boast four types of meat -- alternately similar to pork, beef, fish and tortoise -- and recommends that all of them be deep fried.

[NautiNurse]

If I find out my Go Fishing plate funds the DNC, there will be hell to pay!

[itzmygun]

And when can we start hunting them?

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Lol! License plates, fine...but we pay for the new speed limit signs and increased patrols on the waterways, new regulations for boaters, developers, energy producers, etc..

Everyone who truly cares about the manatees should be thrilled about this report. (^:

[WaveThatFlag]

Apparently they are similiar to hogs. The Spaniards called their meat "river pork." Makes sense to me.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Freepers are bad. (^: See #s 3 and 15.

A very patient secretary for our local school board was having a bad morning after local leftists created another new local crisis and I called to say "hang in there." This sweet Christian women said quietly, " I think they should feed the manatees to the poor." LoL!