Marine biologists, environmentalists sound the alarm, call northern end of Indian River Lagoon a death trap for manatees

A Florida lagoon that was once considered a paradise for the state s manatees has become a death trap and environmentalists announced it s a impact of defilement The Indian River Lagoon stretching from Palm Beach County to Daytona Beach is where manatees come for warm water But in latest years scientists noted the northern end of the lagoon has been a death trap All of these homes along the lagoon that are on septic tanks are slowly leaking literally tons of nitrogen and phosphorus into the system stated marine biologist Peter Barile Barile who has studied manatees for decades announced the pollutants distributed by septic tanks and water rehabilitation facilities along the lagoon are fueling algae development in the water causing the manatees main food source seagrass to die So this algae is reducing light down to the seagrasses essentially smothering them and killing them he mentioned Barile noted manatees need to eat nearly pounds of vegetation a day and with the sea grass gone they have little choice but to eat the toxic algae that killed it causing their normally round bodies to become flat and emaciated Katrina Shadix executive director of the nonprofit Bear Warriors United sued the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in to help protect the manatees They suffered immensely and for a very long time she reported When a manatee starves to death it s an extremely painful process Basically their insides melt and turn to liquid Pictures provided by Bear Warriors United show how desperate chosen of the manatees were as they attempted to pull themselves out of the water to eat leaves off dry land or grass along the water s edge There was a carcass of a mom and the skeleton had started to show and there was a baby skeleton inside of her body reported Shadix so she died pregnant and the bones of the baby were fitted perfectly inside the bones of the mother In April a federal judge ruled in favor of Bear Warriors United finding Florida s Department of Environmental Protection was in violation of the Endangered Species Act The judge ruled There is a definitive causal link between Florida s Department of Environmental Protection wastewater regulations and the ongoing hazard to manatees Shadix noted she is now hopeful the manatee population will come back I was convinced that this home herd was going to go extinct and that the rest of the state s manatee would follow but now that we won this lawsuit we think we have a really good chance of working with the state to make sure the manatees don t go extinct on our watch she commented The federal judge in this episode has allowed Bear Warriors United to lay out the changes it wants the state to make in order to protect manatees Selected of those requests include a supplemental feeding initiative for the manatees and for the state to stop construction of growth with on-site sewage