fish pics

The guy that's our friend down there is an environmental officer for the navy and he said that everything we were doing was fine, you just aren't allowed to feed them which we didn't do, the chips were for the fish which they quickly gobbled down, and we stopped throwing them in once the manatees came over.
 
Manatees are protected under federal law by the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which make it illegal to harass, hunt, capture or kill any marine mammal. Manatees are also protected by the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978. Anyone convicted of violating this state law faces a possible maximum fine of $500.00 and/or imprisonment for up to 60 days. Conviction on the federal level is punishable by a fine of up to $50,000 and/or one year in prison. Feeding manatees, giving them water, or otherwise altering their natural behavior can be considered harassment.
 
Not only is it against the law, no matter what your friend said, you are endangering the manatees you interacted with because you are conditioning them to trust humans and to return to an area that is very dangerous to them.
 
Points taken; I don't think anyone on TONMO is going to do this again, or they'll get a telling off.

We have similar legislation in New Zealand, but most people are not aware of the finer legal details. Thanks esquid for drawing this to the attention of this community.
 
Rough call SOS and esquid - certainly points of importance but painful all the same. I believe there are not many of us who would not have offered water to anything that wanted it and the enjoyment of "helping" a wild creature is well within the thoughts of all members. Not many of us would even suspect it could be harmful so the points are well made but sad because I would so have enjoyed that interaction and I am sure it now takes away from the experience L8_2_Rise enjoyed.

At least on this forum oversites like this can be openly acknowledged and discussed, unlike my office environment where our resident vegan rescued a turtle and completely wiped out the life in a pond too small to support it.
 
I'm guessing that the actual problem is that manatees are endangered by boats, so things that make them hang around near marinas, docks, channels, and so forth are discouraged... but that's just a guess. I think it actually does some good to have this information out there, even though it's not ceph-related...

I certainly understood L8_2_RISE's actions-- I didn't know that watering them was bad to do either, but I do now.
 
I realize that giving water to a manatee is something may seem helpful and caring. But in Florida it is almost impossible to know that it is not. Most docks that the public have access to have GIANT signs that fully explain the state and federal laws pertaining to manatees. But like everywhere else, people don't like to read signs.
Your guess is right Monty, its the boats that are the real danger to the manatees. The propellers of boat can greatly injure and either kill the manatee immediately or leave them open to infection. Most manatees have huge scars on their backs and tails. The scar patterns are how how individuals are identified.
 
esquid;113318 said:
Not only is it against the law, no matter what your friend said, you are endangering the manatees you interacted with because you are conditioning them to trust humans and to return to an area that is very dangerous to them.

Obviously, we weren't expecting manatees to show up, and I can tell you it freaked me out, but when they did, they showed a lot of interest in the hose and loved to play in and drink the water as the pics show. We had just docked our boat and were cleaning it off with the hose, so it's not like we went over and got a hose just for this. If the manatees had come over when we did not have the hose, we never would have thought to get it. A lot of websites have information about manatees drinking fresh water: Id like to draw attention to the last sentence of the "Manatees migrate" section. http://pelotes.jea.com/Manatee.htm, I was unaware of all the information on manatees until after this interaction.

In support of your argument, I found this website http://www.homesafe.com/manatee/rules-of-the-road.html

I now know that this is a law, but, although it doesn't count for much, I'm going to argue against it. As Monty said, it would encourage manatees to hang out in places that they shouldn't, but wouldn't pleasant human interactions, which the law seems to support, do the same?

In support of this incident, the manatees were there already, and the place that they were wasn't a marina or anything, it was a quiet inland salt pond-like area with some houses and a channel on one side. The rest of it was covered in sea-grass, but was too shallow for boats. So I would guess this would be a prime location for manatees and what I did wasn't that harmful in this incident however I will agree that it could have been harmful in the middle of a marina.

There wer no signs that said that, and I do read them when I see them, because I find that they not only tell what not to do, but they give information on the animal which I like to know. Also, I didn't give the water as something that was helpful or careing, but because the manatees liked it. I didn't find out untill after the fact that they needed fresh water. I am also aware of the harm boats can cause to them as one of my pics shows on one of the manatee's tail. I am more of a reptile person myself, so will draw my experience from that: every summer, I go to a research facility near savannah, GA that keeps track of loggerhead turtle activities. We often find turtles that have large chunks taken out of their shell or flippers from boats, among other things, so I am aware of the harm boats can cause to sea life.

I now know that what we did was unlawful even though I don't agree with the reasoning, so will never do it again. I find that many extreme environmentalists (which I am not necessarily "accusing" you of, I think many people, including myself can be accused of it in some subjects) take laws more seriously than they should be taken and are blinded to the "whole story". What happened on the dock with the manatees was an experience I had never dreamed of and one that happens to not so many people. I seriously doubt that such a privelage as to view such magnificent creatures in the wild will ever be bestowed on me again and I will forever remember it. I think that although what I did, although against my knowledge, was wrong, It should not just be remembered as harm to the animal.
 
:smile:

I'm one of those environmentalists too, and I know no harm was intended. Thanks L8 2 Rise. O
 
An orangutan crab in a bubble coral


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A spinecheek anemonefish hiding in its host anemone

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An orange finned anemonefish with its white bonnet mate. The white bonnet is a natural hybrid between an orange anemonefish and an orange finned.

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