In a decision Friday, a federal judge ruled that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) violated the Endangered Species Act, resulting in the starvation deaths of threatened manatees.
The advocacy group Bear Warriors United said this ruling sets a new national precedent: “No state agency is above the Endangered Species Act, even when it comes to regulating itself. The decision signals a turning point for environmental enforcement in Florida and across the country.”
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The lawsuit was filed by Bear Warriors United in 2022, after a record-breaking number of manatee deaths were reported in Brevard County.
The group attributed the increased death rate to the department’s wastewater discharge regulations, which allowed pollution of the North Indian River Lagoon and killed seagrasses used as a food source for manatees.
“It is no wonder then that in recent years, the lack of seagrass and abundance of macroalgae in North IRL affected manatee breeding and reproduction, with almost no live calves begin found from 2020 to 2022,” the decision stated.
The order recognized that there was an increase in manatee calves in 2023 and 2024, there was also an increase in their deaths. The highest concentration calf deaths were reported in Brevard County.
Therefore, Judge Carlos E. Mendoza ruled that there is still an ongoing risk of manatee death and injury within the North IRL.
Related: 565 manatees were reported dead in Florida last year: See local numbers
Plaintiffs and environmental scientists argued that, even if the overload of nutrients from wastewater ended, it would take at least a decade for seagrasses to recover.
FDEP attempted to refute the ongoing risk to manatees, citing the official end of the manatees’ Unusual Mortality Event caused by starvation in March. However, the judge wrote, “The existence of a UME proximately caused by a defendant is likely sufficient to establish a taking under the ESA. However, absence thereof is insufficient to show that no taking is occurring.”
The ESA defines “take” or “taking” to include actions that “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or attempt to engage in any such conduct.”
The judge has now ordered FDEP to obtain an “incidental take permit” (ITP).
An ITP requires an applicant to create a Habitat Conservation Plan to mitigate damage to endangered or threatened species caused incidentally by otherwise lawful activities.
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Below is an excerpt from the ruling:
“As Defendant’s witnesses testified, FDEP is taking important, necessary steps to remediate the polluted waters of the IRL. But that is not enough. The North IRL is in such a deteriorated state that the required remediation will take many years, as the state itself has acknowledged. And during that remediation, wastewater discharged pursuant to FDEP’s regulations will continue to indirectly take manatees in the North IRL.”
“Florida’s manatees can’t speak for themselves—but Bear Warriors United just roared on their behalf,” said Katrina Shadix, Executive Director of Bear Warriors United. “This case is about stewardship of all that is cherished in the IRL; healthy water, healthy seagrass, healthy manatees and healthy people. It is only when the diverse agencies and peoples responsible for all these components collaborate that this health will be ensured. This case is a massive step forward to realizing that goal.”
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