Manatees need our Help!

[New York Mermaid]

Various human activities threaten manatee populations. Fishing nets and lines can cause injuries to manatees that often lead to serious infections. Many manatee deaths are the result of collisions with boats when the mammals are surfacing for air. They are not fast enough to elude the boat propellers, and thus suffer from fatal gashes.Additionally, the recent increase in coastal development has severely affected manatee habitats. The habitats themselves have been destroyed as residential and commercial development has occurred along seagrass beds, mangroves, and salt marshes where manatees live. Pollution in these areas may also have and effect on manatee mortality, as chemicals introduced into their habitats lead to impaired immune systems. The fact that manatees tend to gather in the warm water outflows of power plants furthers the likelihood of the spread of disease.There are currently around 2,000 manatees living in the United States.

Please check this site for further details and how to help out manatees:
http://www.savethemanatee.org/

[Gem Stone]

Completely agree!

[Mermaid Crystal]

i too agree

[Gem Stone]

just a little bump. I feel this is important because manatees are very docile creatures and people treat them terribly. I myself witnesses a group of boys (not being sexist just saying who was in the boat, all possibly drunk definitely smoking guys) scare a baby manatee into a corner with their boat engine. then they cornered the baby and parked in front of it. if I hadn't been so far away from my kayaking group, I would have smacked them with an oar! the baby was trying to catch up with his mother, who had passed me not fifty feet ago.