Protect Species Podcast

Manatees Up Close: Human Connections and Wildlife Care

• Global Center for Species Survival • Season 1 • Episode 13

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Ever wondered what makes Florida manatees so fascinating? On this episode of Protect Species, we promise you'll gain incredible insights into these gentle giants and the crucial conservation efforts that keep them safe. Join Monni Böhm and Justin Birkhoff, as we share a lighthearted chat about the surprising similarities between manatees and humans, before diving into an engaging conversation with our esteemed guests, Craig Miller from the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, and Nadia Lentz from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Hear Nadia's inspiring journey from zoo work to becoming an assistant research scientist, and Craig's dedication to overseeing the manatee critical care facility.

Discover the origins of a remarkable manatee rescue and rehabilitation initiative that started at a northern Florida zoo in 2006 and has grown significantly since then. Learn about the establishment of a critical care facility in 2017 and the essential role of the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership in collaboration with the FWC. We'll explore the biology and challenges faced by manatees—such as their need for warm water and susceptibility to cold stress—and the teamwork and equipment involved in their rescues.

Our conversation also delves into ongoing efforts to mitigate the impacts of harmful chemicals on manatees, particularly in Duval County. We discuss current initiatives like replanting and upgrading septic systems to city sewers, and highlight ethical and sustainable spots to view manatees, like Crystal River and Blue Spring. Aspiring wildlife conservationists will find valuable advice on volunteering, interning, and pursuing specialized education programs.

Links:
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
Jacksonville Manatee Rescue and Rehab
National Wildlife Federation - Manatees

Monni Böhm:

Did you know that, like many of us, florida manatees like to congregate in you probably guessed it Florida during the winter months? Today we are talking to Craig Miller of the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens and Nadia Lenz from Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to learn more about manatees on the First Coast and what these two organizations, along with others, are doing to assist them. I'm Monni Böhm.

Justin Birkhoff:

And I'm Justin Birkhoff. Welcome to the Protect Species podcast, where we celebrate biodiversity and converse with conservationists.

Monni Böhm:

So, justin, I'll probably for the entire podcast, will struggle not to say monities, because I feel they're a little bit like me, they're like you, or? Well, I mean, we nearly weigh as much really like seagrass, I love seagrass. No, actually we're entirely different, it's just the names are close I mean you'd be there.

Justin Birkhoff:

There's some overlap. You're both, both mammals, so there's like some basic oh well, there you go, that's like have you overwintered in florida yet I have not overwintered in florida yet.

Monni Böhm:

so whatever I said, You're both mammals, so there's like some basic. Oh well, there you go. That's like have you overwintered in Florida yet I have not overwintered in Florida yet. So whatever I said in the intro was actually kind of a lie. Be like, you know, like most of us.

Justin Birkhoff:

I said, like many of us, many of us, not all of us.

Monni Böhm:

Like many, because not of us, because I've not been, I know very little about Florida and one of the questions I have again, I felt I should read out the intro, as if I know what I'm talking about.

Justin Birkhoff:

You did a good job.

Monni Böhm:

First Coast? Where's the second coast? Why is it called the first?

Justin Birkhoff:

coast. The first coast is the east coast of Florida, the second coast is the west coast of Florida. Is it really that's what they say? I don't know. Is that true? Yes, I lived there and I will tell you, as somebody who used to live in Florida, overwintering best time to be there, Otherwise real hot.

Monni Böhm:

Oh yeah, Real muggy. It's not going to happen in summer, that's for sure, Not for me anyway.

Justin Birkhoff:

So first coast on the east, Second coast on the west, because if you're going from east to west, it's the first one you hit.

Monni Böhm:

But if you're going the other direction.

Justin Birkhoff:

It doesn't work that way. Which then?

Monni Böhm:

immediately begs the question, and I think you know where this is going, right.

Justin Birkhoff:

No.

Monni Böhm:

Where's the third coast?

Justin Birkhoff:

That's a great question.

Monni Böhm:

It's like if we start the numbering, then at least keep it up.

Justin Birkhoff:

Is that east Texas? It might be eastes.

Monni Böhm:

Rather than geography. Yes, okay, or monatees, Monatees.

Justin Birkhoff:

Okay, let's do it. Done Well. So good morning, Craig and Nadia. Thanks for joining us today. We're going to give you that easy softball question If you could tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do and if you'd like to give kind of a short overview of how you came to be in your current position.

Nadia Lentz:

Good morning. Good morning, Thank you for having me. I'm Nadia Lentz with FWC's Marine Mammal Section, so an assistant research scientist with the agency, and I previously worked under Craig at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. I was a mammal supervisor. The team started excuse me, the zoo started a team under FWC with rescue assistance. I became heavily involved until the point that I moved over to FWC.

Justin Birkhoff:

Excellent.

Craig Miller:

And you, Craig. Yeah, we trained her up perfectly for that FWC position. But yeah, no, she does great.

Justin Birkhoff:

And Greg, what do you do at the zoo?

Monni Böhm:

Clearly a man of mystery.

Justin Birkhoff:

Yes.

Craig Miller:

Yeah, yeah, hi, good morning. I am the curator of manatee conservation and so I oversee our manatee critical care or acute care facility and, as Nadia mentioned, we also have a rescue team, so I help coordinate that and we're ultimately helping FWC with rescues and carcass recovery, so I oversee those things here.

Nadia Lentz:

And actually for us we cover 10 and a half counties for marine mammal response. So that's not just rescues and live animals with manatees, it's also whales, dolphins, and a lot of the animals we take in, unfortunately, are carcasses that we are recovering. So the zoo even has, yes, individuals that come out and give us a hand Great partnership.

Monni Böhm:

So how did you first become involved with, specifically manatees? What was it that fascinated you about manatees? Or did you just, I don't know, fall into this role? That's also entirely okay, since that's happened to me my entire life.

Craig Miller:

Yeah, for me, actually. So Nadia was here working at the zoo when we first got into it and we established a rescue team. We were looking for things or conservation projects that our staff could get involved with, and this was a local conservation project specifically, and that's how it started. We were again just looking to expose, get our staff involved, and I was certainly interested in that, and so we set that up back in 2006. And for a while Noddy and I were like co-coordinators of the team. So that's how it started. You know, I grew up up north and didn't know anything about manatees, but I think, like a lot of folks, once sort of saw my first one and and got to be around one, especially in the wild. Um, I was kind of hooked from there yeah, that makes sense.

Justin Birkhoff:

And so you guys got started with doing local rescue with staff and um, having them, you know, be part of their time is is participating with. And then when did you guys start bringing animals on your zoo grounds in order to start doing the rehab work?

Craig Miller:

Sure, yeah, we started talking about a facility pretty early on after we started our response team in 06. And we were talking about it. There was a need in North Florida to have a critical care facility. So it went on for some years, but in 2017, in August, that's when we brought in our first patients. So it's been we're coming up on seven years, so not that long compared to the other care facilities, but then again, there are new facilities coming online as well in our partnership. Um, but, yeah, that was, uh, it was a lot of great work we were doing assisting FWC with the responses and uh, but when we started caring for animals here on site and rehabbing them here, that was a pretty big deal and, um, and so we're, yeah, we're moving full speed ahead. Since then, it's been, uh, been pretty, pretty busy, even though we're a pretty small facility right now.

Justin Birkhoff:

Excellent, and so I I, oh sorry, go ahead.

Nadia Lentz:

No, I was just going to say very impactful for us that we have this hole in Northeast Florida where there was no manatee critical care. So we rescue something and we're driving hours to another rehab facility. So to have critical care in our own backyard was incredible, that we could just bring animals right back to the zoo.

Justin Birkhoff:

Excellent. And so you mentioned the partnership, greg, and I'm assuming this is the Manatee Rescue and Rehabilitation Partnership. How many members are part of this partnership, and was that really a driving force for you guys building the acute care center?

Craig Miller:

Well, I'm looking at a cheat sheet. I think we must be around 35 or something, it was. So, yeah, we got involved pretty early, well before we had a facility, because we were considering it. We became part of the partnership and also because of the the rescue work we were doing with FWC. So it's, I've been impressed with this organization, this partnership. It is an impressive collection of facilities and and so, yeah, they they certainly were a driving force as far as, especially, fwc knowing there was a need for a facility in in Northeast Florida. So they were definitely supportive of it from early on and, you know, helping us sort of maybe get established, starting out slow kind of thing, giving at least suggestions, so for sure, just being part of the partnership was a big part of it. But then there was specific direct, like I said, support and just for the idea that was really important that the MRP was supportive of that.

Nadia Lentz:

Fantastic.

Monni Böhm:

I suppose we've talked a lot about manatees without actually checking in with our listeners. If they actually know what a manatee is, we should probably kind of maybe cover that. If you don't know what a manatee is, google it. No, craig Nadia, for the purpose of our, for for like the benefit of our listeners, can you just maybe give us a description of what manatees are, in case there are some who do not know what a manatee is?

Nadia Lentz:

Yeah, manatees are in the order, cyrenia, and the average manatee is 9 to 10 feet and about 1,000 or 1,200 pounds in weight. So for kids we say, wait, it's about the weight of a golf cart. To give them an example. They're primarily herbivorous, found in our waterways, here and all throughout, and you get females that are larger than the males and will reach 3,000 pounds in weight. When they have a calf it's about four feet in length, 60 pounds and they'll stay with mom for about two years. Now, one of the calls that we commonly get to the hotline is when there's a mom manatee and everybody's trying to save the mom manatee, but it's mating herd related, so you'll get multiple males vying for a female and the males are smaller in size smaller in size.

Craig Miller:

So, and and I'll just add um, they, they look like they have this thick layer of blubber like, uh, like a lot of cetaceans and seals and sea lions, but they don't. So, um, they require, you know, relatively warm water, and so they can't handle the cold winters. Um, and so they need, basically, they need water, 68 degrees or above, and so that's one of their. It leads to a lot of challenges because where they need to congregate in the winter, you know habitat issues, food issues there in those areas. So the fact that they need that warm water is really key to a lot of issues they end up facing, including things like cold stress, which is what we deal with a lot at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, because we are at the northernmost critical care facility, and so we definitely see a good number of cold stress cases in the winter months.

Justin Birkhoff:

Okay, I mean, that's a pretty good description. So you mentioned cetaceans. So cetaceans are the family that contains whales, dolphins, porpoises, so they have that thick blubber layer Cold water isn't as big of an issue and manatees the flora. Manatee is the one serenia that we find in North America, correct? There's four other species that are found in South America as well as in Africa, and then there's the dugong, which is also found in Southeast Asia.

Justin Birkhoff:

So, we do find them all around the world. They're all relatively similar, but we're going to focus in on Florida manatees because that's what you guys' facility works with and what you're seeing every day.

Monni Böhm:

And this is why Justin Berkhoff is, when he's not a podcast host, our mammal coordinator here at the Global Center for Species Survival.

Justin Birkhoff:

So well done. I got some knowledge I know Stuff up in my sleeve, so we're going to dive a little bit more into them a bit.

Monni Böhm:

Dive, I like it. Good pun Thank you.

Justin Birkhoff:

But I think one of the things that we like to kind of establish is you know, as you mentioned, you got hooked right, greg, so like there was that first experience, so you know, do you have a favorite story about working with manatees?

Craig Miller:

Well, for me, um, I, I, I say it all the time to our guests and others that will listen to me but just being able to release a man, manti, back into the wild is the most rewarding thing that I've ever done in my career, and it's what it's all about. And it ends up with all the work we do, rehabbing and even the rescue side of things. The release ends up being pretty easy and it's usually pretty quick too, um, but it's just such a rewarding experience and I could release manatees all day long. Um, I'd be happy to do that. So that's and you know, generally speaking, that's that's what I really prefer doing. Pick any, any release, and that's, uh, that's my favorite thing.

Monni Böhm:

Okay, what about you, nadia?

Nadia Lentz:

Well, one that stands out is you know, it's all about teamwork, too is a big part of this. An average manatee rescue takes eight to ten people, and at our lab we have three, so it's the partners we work with. We've got a specially designed rescue boat that we utilize, and yet not all rescues involve that, and one case I think of is with the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department. We had a manatee stuck in a storm drain and it took a village and all day and to see the firemen start digging with shovels before the heavy equipment arrived. Craig showed up with some supplies for us, I think just because he wanted the Jacksonville Zoo logo on the live feed that was going on.

Craig Miller:

They had a truck drive by the cameraman.

Monni Böhm:

Yeah that truck kind of go past several times. Excellent, good work, yeah.

Nadia Lentz:

Yeah, it was a process working with, yeah, teamwork. It involves a lot of people and that's a fun part of the job too.

Justin Birkhoff:

I mean I will. So our listeners don't know a whole lot about all this. I spent about six months interning at Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens in the conservation department. That's how we connected over this and I had a lot of really fun times there and a lot of fun memories.

Justin Birkhoff:

But I do have a very distinct memory of assisting with with a release, um, you know, and riding the back of a truck with this giant animal and the smell's not good, it's really really very unpleasant and it clings to you even after you shower, seemingly. Yeah, wow, rude, um, but like I agree, it's like that. That moment, you know, we spent two hours in the back of this vehicle making sure the animal is calm for this release and damp and all of those things and the like. Six minutes of release of you know, pulling them back out of the truck, marching into you know, waist deep, brackish water and then watching this animal swim away, was a truly wonderful experience. So I I appreciate that that that is the favorite moment and it's hard to quantify which one is is more, more enjoyable and because this is audio, can I just give the visuals?

Monni Böhm:

justin is properly emotional right now. So that's really properly emotional right now. So this is like the serious part of this podcast it is.

Craig Miller:

It is hard to describe, you know just how good it makes you feel yeah yeah, no, I can imagine.

Monni Böhm:

I can imagine um, that sounds pretty phenomenal.

Justin Birkhoff:

Yeah that's pretty cool. Um, so you mentioned, you know the cold stress and you know the habitat. You know restrictions being something that is impacting them and we'll touch on that a little bit more, but we we find them both in fresh and marine systems, so freshwater systems and saltwater systems. What role do manatees play in these systems and how is that? How's that still intact and where are we starting to find deficiencies in it?

Nadia Lentz:

Sure, I feel like they're good indicators of habitat health. You know sentinel species and and they keep aquatic vegetation in check as they're feeding on it. So kind of a benefit we have there.

Craig Miller:

Yeah, they definitely talk about them as being keystone, like Nadia said, and we might find out issues earlier than normal that may be going on within the environment that we can respond to, maybe quicker than if they say this often too, if you know people that get a chance to be around manatees, I think. I think if they don't want to try to help them, or at least not not hurt them, not run them over with their boats or whatever I think there may be, they may not be paying close attention, but yet just helping them, helping out, I believe we're helping ourselves, helping the environment. It's just, it's just key with these guys.

Monni Böhm:

So, anyway, rambling a little bit there, but I do believe that this podcast is a production of the Global Center for Species Survival at the Indianapolis Zoo. We record all episodes in the Beadle Financial Media Studio, made possible by a generous gift from Elaine and Eric Beadle.

Justin Birkhoff:

So we talked a little bit about partnerships and we're gonna kind of dive into that a little bit deeper. There's a strong relationship between FWC and Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, both playing on the in situ side, so in the field and the place where these animals are living, and then the exit you side, so in under human care. How does Jacksonville Zoo operate in both of those spaces and how does it use its partnerships, particularly around manatees, to really create impact?

Craig Miller:

Well, specifically, I don't think we mentioned it, but the FWC Northeast Field Lab is located on our property. So that was a couple of years after we that was in 2008, after we were working together for a couple of years. But they needed a place. Their lease was up where they were and I think we sold them a trailer for a buck and we don't charge them rent.

Craig Miller:

But it's a great collaboration. So we can not only increase response times, you know, especially if staff that are working at the zoo are going to help them with a rescue. You know we're right here. So we definitely work closely, you know, when it comes to those things rescues and carcass recoveries but we, you know, we can lend each other equipment, share equipment. We borrow FWC's transport truck where the zoo is responsible for releases. Fwc is not technically part of that, but we can borrow their transport truck and use it for our releases transport truck and use it for our releases. So, um, that's the kind of you know, close collaboration that just makes us more efficient at what we do um, at least give me an idea there.

Monni Böhm:

Okay, can I ask something about the mechanics of a rescue, because that's just popped into my head again. Um, so you mentioned that you have a special boat for the rescues, but now you also mentioned a truck. How do you get something that's this heavy from a truck to a boat, or the other way around?

Nadia Lentz:

Woman and manpower.

Monni Böhm:

Yeah, but I mean like like bare hands.

Justin Birkhoff:

Not bare hands. Human hands, bare hands bare hands.

Monni Böhm:

No opposable thumbs, really useless at most things.

Justin Birkhoff:

What sort of equipment are you using for those?

Monni Böhm:

How does it look to somebody walking by If you explain? This is kind of what happens during one of these.

Justin Birkhoff:

You know, strategically, drive by a live video feed. What would you see on the other side?

Nadia Lentz:

Sure, some people call them. What are the vehicle rolling straps is what we utilize. You can find them at automotive stores, probably, but rolling straps and we roll the animal or, like shimmy, these straps underneath the animal, roll it and utilize stretchers to place the animals into, and then everybody grabs a hold and small steps as we move the direction we're trying to move that animal.

Craig Miller:

So, yes, yeah, it's, it's some of the uh thinking back to some of these. You know stretchering an animal and sometimes you're you know it's not a perfect uh pathway you're taking, um, some of the hardest work I've I've done and, uh, you know you don't always have, you know, extra staff or enough staff and so you're you're grabbing people. You mentioned walking by what it would look like. If you're walking by, we may shout at you to come up with this stretcher because you can. You can get a lot of people, I don't know. You can probably get 10, 12 people on a stretcher. So, yeah, sometimes you get a lot of people. You can probably get 10, 12 people on a stretcher. So, yeah, sometimes you need a lot of help.

Craig Miller:

But there's also a lift gate on the truck so that gets you raising up into the truck. But still it's a lot of physical labor. You don't have like at the zoo, if we're going to move an animal or weigh an animal, we're using a piece of equipment. You know telescoping, forklift, telehandlers, what we use a lot of times, but on these at the rescue site and also at the release site, you don't have. It's rare. I've never been involved in one myself where you had a piece of equipment at either the rescue or release site. So, yeah, it's a lot of uh, a lot of woman and manpower, like Nadia said for sure, a lot of sweat and fitness regime, plus it's Florida, so it's just kind of warm yeah, a

Nadia Lentz:

little sticky anyway, yeah you know, oysters as well can be many of the conditions that we're dealing in too.

Justin Birkhoff:

So, besides the liftgate, what makes the truck specialized?

Nadia Lentz:

Really, the truck is a box truck. I don't want to mention that. We've used U-Hauls before but it just has foam padding in the back of the truck. So any truck with a box will work. Back in the day FWC used to use a box will work. Back in the day fwc used to use vans to transport. So it's nice when we were able to each field lab. Now there's five in the state of florida. Each have their own truck with all of their equipment and buckets and water and everything ready to go okay, awesome.

Monni Böhm:

Thank you so much. I just wanted to kind of I love the logistics questions of really big beasts and how you move them from A to B or how you weigh stuff.

Justin Birkhoff:

You mentioned these weight ranges of males around 1,000 and females around 3,000 pounds. That's significant. How are you weighing them and what is the logistical difference between weighing them at the facility on grounds when, as Craig mentioned, you have equipment, and are you weighing animals in the field, or does that wait until they come back?

Nadia Lentz:

For us. We typically do not weigh them in the field. Our goal when we get there I mean first we're doing assessment. A big part of this is the citizens, especially with cell phones today that we can get photos. We have in the past responded to plastic bags, palm fronds etc. That people are so sure it's a live animal that needs our attention. So people that are calling in the animals to our FWC hotline. That's the first step and then once we get out there, it's doing the assessment, getting the animal in hand, and we don't weigh them in the field, unless sometimes we're doing an assist and release. Maybe something caught in commercial crab pock here or an entanglement situation, whatever the case, may be tidally stranded, but typically the zoo is doing the weights and the animal comes in Like Nadia mentioned those rolling straps earlier.

Craig Miller:

Sometimes we have a lift floor.

Craig Miller:

So we sometimes will get a stretcher underneath the animal while they're still in maybe two feet of water and then we'll lift them and they end up on the stretcher. But more often than not we'll just raise them up on that lift floor. They're completely out of the water and then we, like Nadia mentioned, we shimmy those rolling straps underneath them and then you roll them to one side, you tuck the stretcher underneath, roll them back the other way and pull the stretcher out on the other side. So it's some work but, yeah, you're not able to just lift that animal up and get them on the stretcher. But yeah, and sometimes yeah, I was just going to say sometimes you know, when we've had 1,700-pound animals here, that it changes things and then we're calling for all hands on deck. We get a lot of people up there on that lift floor to help us out. We we normally do have, you know, the benefit of having a lot of staff around here, um, as compared to a rescue or a release site.

Monni Böhm:

So, yeah, there's some big animals yeah, and this concludes, uh, this week's episode of the.

Justin Birkhoff:

How.

Monni Böhm:

You Weigh an Animal podcast. We are a little bit obsessed with this, I have to say. It's a bit of a running theme. But going back to the rescues and the animals coming into your facility, what is the goal? Is the goal to rewild all of the manatees, or as many as possible, or are there actually situations where it's best for the manatee to remain in human care?

Craig Miller:

Yeah, so first off, the goal is always to, you know, rehab and then release them. That's always what we're hoping to do. But there certainly are some animals within the partnership that are non-releasable just too significant of an injury. It's normally related to a specific injury. So, yeah, there are probably 15 or 16 animals in the entire partnership that are considered non-releasable. Seen animals in the entire partnership that are considered non-releasable. But yet I tell our guests often that we love these guys, but we want them out of here, back in the wild. So that's always our number one goal.

Monni Böhm:

So what are the kind of injuries and things that manatees get brought into? Brought into seems like a really kind of. I just took a manatee to a facility we obviously just established. It takes much more than this, but what are the kind of things that you see in the rescues?

Craig Miller:

Yeah, we have one animal that was with us and now he's currently at SeaWorld. We're not sure exactly what caused him to be in the current state, but he he's. He's doing great. But he was released twice and just failed big time, got himself stranded immediately, just like, just not able to navigate the wild. But he, when he came in, um for lack of a better description he was basically in a coma and so he was an animal.

Craig Miller:

Folks may have heard about what was going on in the Indian River Lagoon area of Florida mainly in 2021 was the worst year, but anyway, he came out of that area. So it could have been. You know, he was nutritionally, you know not a lot of animals were starving to death down there, so he, he was one of those animals. But, um, anyway, so he's just. We. We attempted to release him, like I said, twice and he just failed. So it looks like he's not going to be able to be released, but otherwise, you know, when you see him, he seems to be fine. You know he eats well and just interacts with other well. Doesn't interact much with other manatees, as much as you would expect, so there's something going on with him, but he's healthy and doing well. So there's an animal that very likely won't be released, since we tried, we gave it a real good effort, so that's an unusual injury. Trying to think what else other injuries are out there.

Nadia Lentz:

We had a manatee entangled in a fish cleaning station. We've had a manatee entangled in a fish cleaning station. We've had a manatee entangled in a Christmas tree display on the water Ingestion different ingestion cases, you know, yeah, but of course watercraft is a big one and it's actually blunt force trauma that's the number one cause of death versus the propeller. It's causing damage to the internal organs and, as Craig mentioned, with these cases too, like that animal there, inigo, that he's referring to they're given a tag.

Nadia Lentz:

So it's this bulbous or cylindrical tag, satellite tag that's placed on the animal to see how they're doing in the water. Are they finding warm water food sources, doing what they're supposed to be doing during the winter months? Is it working out or do we need to bring them back in?

Justin Birkhoff:

Okay, so the post-release monitoring is what allowed you to figure out that he wasn't thriving when he was put back out and allows you to adjust. So I'm gonna ask, because you mentioned the Indian River. I have no idea what was happening there, so I imagine a large number of our listeners don't either. So can you kind of expand on what the situation that was happening when he came out of it being, you know, kind of nutritionally deficient, but what other kind of environmental factors were happening there that was impacting all of these manatees?

Craig Miller:

Yep, sure can no-transcript. The seagrasses that the manatees feed on die, and this was going on, for it had to be for 10 plus years that I was hearing about it, or more, but it all came to a head the winter of 2020, 2021. The winter of 2020, 2021. And so that's at the. I think it's the Cape Canaveral Energy Center that warm water outfall had, if not still has, the largest aggregation of manatees in the wintertime when they need that warm water. So you have an area where there's huge aggregation of manatees, lack of food and so led to the starvation of hundreds of animals. So it was a rough time for manatees. It's technically that it was deemed an unusual mortality event federal designation so that freed up some funds and different things. So it's technically still going on, but things have been much, much better for the last year or two. But yeah, we saw our busiest year ever was in 2021, directly related to all those starving animals coming out of that area. So, yeah, rough time for manatees for sure.

Monni Böhm:

So for somebody who's desperately ignorant on all things Florida, that's me, that's my tag. You mentioned the boat strikes and watercraft strikes that are the biggest problem with the manatees. Sorry, I can't speak. I'm trying to emulate Justin's sound emotional, emotional, but I just can't do it. Um, what's what's been put in place to make, um, the public aware of this? Are there any kind of measures in place um to to kind of start avoid these watercraft? What can, can people do essentially to help with a problem or help alleviate the problem, not help with a problem?

Nadia Lentz:

Yeah, here in Duval we actually the city does a kind of a kickoff event. Hey, manatees are migrating back to the area. Be mindful. Keep your eyes on the water. Look for signs that they are moving through the area, whether it's their nose breaking the surface or the swirls or footprints in the water that they leave. Wear your polarized glasses. Mind the manatee zones. Manatees are typically found in less than 30 feet of water, grazing on the shorelines. Keep this in mind. So, yes, boater, caution and safety mind.

Craig Miller:

So, yes, odor, caution and safety. Okay, those speed zones are, are critical and and they're normally like, not even saying, in the shallow areas, where that's also where the shallow areas, well, number one, that's where the food grows, because it it, it needs. If it's too deep, you know, it's not the sunlight, it's not going to get to that the seagrass. So it grows in shallow areas and that's where manatees are feeding for hours a day and uh, and so that's where a lot of those slow speed zones are. So following those posted speed limits is is critical. Um, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't guarantee manatees are all around. So they're, we know they're still going to get struck, even when people are following the speed zones, but it, but certainly those are critical speed zone areas again, where manatees are likely feeding, or maybe it's a place where they pass through on a regular basis.

Justin Birkhoff:

Excellent and it's been a very successful behavior change campaign. Florida manatee populations has rebounded quite considerably over the last few decades and a lot of it is this. You know this awareness is a reduction in some of the boat strikes. Like you said, craig, it's never gone away a hundred percent and it's unlikely that it will but mitigating. That has been a really successful behavior change campaign in the area where we find these animals and you mentioned a lot you know the issue with Indian rivers. A lot was this kind of this runoff with, you know, agricultural concerns, people's residential and these are one of the big threats. What is Florida doing, or what is Duval County doing where you guys are located? What are? Are there mitigation steps to kind of reduce some of these chemical impacts that we're seeing on this species?

Craig Miller:

Yeah, nadia and I are looking at each other. I am definitely not an expert on that. I don't know specifically in Duval County. I know in other areas. You know they're doing replantings. You know they're doing replantings and I know the pretty positive the Indian River Lagoon area, like there have been funds designated for. You know, I think, as far as changes from septic tanks to city sewer, things like that. But in Duval I'm not sure specifically what's being done there, what about you?

Nadia Lentz:

And they are currently reworking the manatee protection plan for the county of Duval. So these counties that have had high watercraft number of cases are required to keep up with these plans to protect manatees.

Justin Birkhoff:

I guess a good question is you know we mentioned, you know viewership is a big thing. You know people, people come to Florida or go to Florida to view manatees. Where are good spots? You know where are good spots to do it, to see them, you know, to guarantee to the best of your ability but also to do it ethically and sustainably. Where are good spots for people to view manatees in Florida?

Nadia Lentz:

I typically say the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. Oh, good answer.

Monni Böhm:

Nice, that's nearly like driving a truck through the picture. It's like the audio, the audio equivalent.

Justin Birkhoff:

So there's obviously Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens, but where would it be a good spot to see them in the wild, ethically and sustainably?

Craig Miller:

Yeah, tell Nadia, this is not the wild. But yeah, that's I. I tell people all the time I don't have any connection to Crystal River. Um, my uncle is not the mayor or anything like that. But, um, if you want to paddle um with manatees and even swim with them, um, in my experience Crystal River is the place to go in in the winter time. Um, it's, they're just manatees everywhere and they're used to people and of course there are issues, you know, related to that too many people and all that. But it is, I don't know it's. There's nothing better for me personally, you know paddleboarding, just watching manatees. I was down there this past winter and my wife said to me I was surprised you didn't get in the water and swim with them. And I just said I was just happy, just kind of staying a little bit away from them on the surface just watching them. So Crystal Rivers is definitely a great destination, but it gets crowded down there and we don't want to overcrowd, so I don't know, I hesitate sometimes to say Crystal River, but it is a great place.

Craig Miller:

And then, quickly, I'll mention Blue Spring from land, blue Spring in Orange City, which is near Deland, not too far from Daytona. It is a great, great park and a great place to see manatees from land. It's so great that they have to close it down in the wintertime, on those busy days when the park gets full. They don't let people just continue coming in. They close it down, which is great management of the park. But sometimes you may be disappointed if it's already closed. If you try to go there, there are other places. There's Manatee Springs, which is on the west coast of Florida Chiefland area. That's a really nice park but just not as many manatees as you'll see it like Blue Spring.

Monni Böhm:

That's great, and I like the message about you know what? Watching manatees from land is also absolutely mind-blowingly wonderful. Are there actually any kind of laws about getting too close to these creatures or other marine mammals?

Nadia Lentz:

Yeah, they are protected from the Endangered Species Act, even though they were reclassified to threatened in 2017. Manatee Sanctuary Act, marine Mammal Protection Act and you are harassing is considered even feeding and watering, which people don't realize. So anything that changes the animal's natural behavior is considered harassment.

Monni Böhm:

Okay, cool, that's good to know.

Justin Birkhoff:

So good rules for ethical viewing is to make sure that you're not harassing or changing its behavior. I was taught it on the West Coast in California was if a SEAL looks up and picks up his head and looks at you, you've technically harassed it because you've changed its behavior.

Monni Böhm:

It's the same with me, by the way oh you just did it again. Oh goodness gracious.

Justin Birkhoff:

So we're going to have one final question for both of you. I imagine the answers will be similar but different. So we have, you know, our listenership is varied and we have some younger listeners and just kind of general people question is do you have any advice for people that are interested in getting into this field, either in something like FWC or something like Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens? What is a good career path? If you were going to give somebody an elevator pitch of these are the sorts of things you need to do to follow this into a career path. Do you have any nuggets of advice?

Nadia Lentz:

I would say volunteering. That is such an impactful thing to do. It gives people insight as well. We've had people intern or volunteer with us that realize they don't want to do this job, and that can be just as beneficial as learning what you do like. So time spent learning about what you are interested in volunteering like I said, interning I think that's huge.

Craig Miller:

Yeah, and I definitely agree with that. That wasn't the route I took and I often say well, you may not be in a position where you can volunteer, but my schooling going through a teaching zoo program is what led me here and I often recommend that route. There are multiple schools now out there where you can, you know, major in in in zookeeping or something similar to that. So that's another route. But I totally agree that if you can volunteer it really does give you a chance to get a good feel for what what it's like to work in this field.

Justin Birkhoff:

Excellent, those are both great answers.

Monni Böhm:

They are.

Justin Birkhoff:

Anything else.

Monni Böhm:

I don't have anything at all. I need to kind of start Googling a lot of geography of Florida. Post this podcast.

Justin Birkhoff:

It's like L-shaped, but kind of upside down. It's really helpful.

Monni Böhm:

That's about as far as I know.

Justin Birkhoff:

Jack's is in the northwest corner or northeast corner? I was going to say I was about to say I think you got that wrong Top right corner. That's where we're looking Greg's laughing at me. He has to sit outside his office. I should know where they are. But thank you so much for taking the time this morning. We really do appreciate it. We appreciate you giving some great answers and some insight and, yeah, we we hope to talk with you guys soon and best of luck with the upcoming season.

Monni Böhm:

Keep up the good work.

Craig Miller:

Thank you both. Thank you, we appreciate it.

Justin Birkhoff:

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Justin Birkhoff

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Monni Böhm, Ph.D.

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