\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA new state report has linked this year’s cold snap in Florida to an increase in manatee deaths, with cold stress identified as a significant factor affecting the marine mammals.Kelli Hunsucker, an associate professor of oceanography at Florida Tech, said, “This year was unprecedented. You know we haven’t had cold like this since 2010.”The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported 176 manatee deaths so far in 2026, compared to 632 total deaths in 2025.While watercraft-related incidents remain the primary cause, cold-stress deaths have notably increased, with 35 cases statewide and seven in Brevard County.”The manatees can succumb to cold-stress if they have prolonged exposure to water temperatures below the 68 degrees, and then they can also suffer from hypothermia if the water gets into the 30s, 40s,” Hunsucker said. During the cold stretch earlier this year, temperatures in the lagoon dropped to the 50s, affecting the manatee population.A 400-pound manatee was rescued from a storm drain, where it was likely seeking warmth, and is now rehabilitating at Sea World.Despite the challenges, Hunsucker sees hope in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s report from 2025, noting, “I thought FWC’s report was really promising from 2025, where we actually had less manatee casualties last year\u2014it was lower than the 5-year average, so that was really promising. We’re also seeing sea grass come back in the lagoon, which is a manatee’s primary food source, so that’s really promising.”Hunsucker also urges boaters to remain vigilant for manatees while enjoying the water.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tFLORIDA, USA \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A new state report has linked this year’s cold snap in Florida to an increase in manatee deaths, with cold stress identified as a significant factor affecting the marine mammals.<\/p>\n
Kelli Hunsucker, an associate professor of oceanography at Florida Tech, said, “This year was unprecedented. You know we haven’t had cold like this since 2010.”<\/p>\n
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reported 176 manatee deaths so far in 2026, compared to 632 total deaths in 2025.<\/p>\n
While watercraft-related incidents remain the primary cause, cold-stress deaths have notably increased, with 35 cases statewide and seven in Brevard County.<\/p>\n
“The manatees can succumb to cold-stress if they have prolonged exposure to water temperatures below the 68 degrees, and then they can also suffer from hypothermia if the water gets into the 30s, 40s,” Hunsucker said. <\/p>\n
During the cold stretch earlier this year, temperatures in the lagoon dropped to the 50s, affecting the manatee population.<\/p>\n
A 400-pound manatee was rescued from a storm drain, where it was likely seeking warmth, and is now rehabilitating at Sea World.<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, Hunsucker sees hope in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s report from 2025, noting, “I thought FWC’s report was really promising from 2025, where we actually had less manatee casualties last year\u2014it was lower than the 5-year average, so that was really promising. We’re also seeing sea grass come back in the lagoon, which is a manatee’s primary food source, so that’s really promising.”<\/p>\n
Hunsucker also urges boaters to remain vigilant for manatees while enjoying the water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new state report has linked this year’s cold snap in Florida to an increase in manatee deaths,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":186577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-186576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}