Tired of Florida Cold, Manatees Post Up in Power Plant Discharge

Manatees suffering from depressed temperatures in typically balmy Florida are resorting to hanging out in the warm discharge of the state’s power plants.

According to an Associated Press report, the manatees are amassing around Florida Power & Light Company’s plant in Riviera Beach, where the company opened the manatee-focused attraction Manatee Lagoon eight years ago. Thus, the manatees are finding some salvation during a chilly spell in the Sunshine State.

Manatees grow to about 10 feet long (3 meters) and weigh between 800 and 1,200 pounds (363 kilograms to 544 kilograms). They are native to the waters off of Florida, which are typically warm.

But a polar vortex clamped down on most of the United States last week and its cooler-than-average temperatures grazed Florida, making the manatees’ normally warm home uncomfortably chilly. Thus, the sea cows headed over to the warm—and crucially, clean—water discharge from the power plant.

“Manatees are such a special species that we have in our waters here in Florida, because they are a sentinel species, which means that they’re an indicator for any water problems that we may have or any environmental issues we may have,” Rachel Shanker, an education manager at Manatee Lagoon, told the AP. “They’re kind of the first animals to start to respond to any changes in the environment.”

Over the last couple of years, Florida’s manatees suffered a mass starvation event. A devastating loss in local seagrass, the species’ favorite food, was caused by algal blooms. The threatened manatees—listed as endangered until 2017—became distressed across the state, and in 2021 the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported a record 1,100 manatee fatalities.

The situation got so extreme that in 2022 the state resorted to feeding the animals heads of romaine lettuce. The following year, conservation groups announced their intention to sue U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services due to the agency’s alleged failure to protect the manatees.

“The manatees come here to Manatee Lagoon for that warm water, but we don’t have a large population of seagrass right here on our property,” Shanker told the AP. “And so they’ll come here to Manatee Lagoon to get warm, then when they start to get hungry, they will travel out to find those seagrass beds, and they’ll go feed until they get full, and they get cold, and they’ll come back to our warm water to get warm.” According to Shanker, the plant uses ocean water to cool the plant but otherwise does not alter it—in other words, it’s just warm ocean water.

The amount of seagrass off the Atlantic coast has recovered since its die-off, and the manatee population has increased in step with it; last year’s total manatee mortality (565 deaths) was “well below the average (739) of the five most recent years,” according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The population is still threatened, and Florida is no stranger to natural disasters that can affect the animals’ habitat. But the recent numbers have manatees on the uptick, and that’s something to celebrate.