SCIENCE NATURE SCHEME : GENTLE GIANTS

WHY manatees need humans to slow down and pay some real attention :

In early March, a female manatee measuring 9 feet 5 inches long that was injured after being in the path of a boat was rescued in an estuary in Cape Coral, Fla, a winter habitat for the rotund water mammals.

It's not clear where the boat and the manatee collided, but the 2.9-meter long mammal suffered injuries to its ribs and lungs, which led to its death 10 days later at a rehabilitation center.

It was during the latest encounters between humans and manatees that contributed to the death of one of the animals.

Through March 27 this year, at least of the sea cows - as the manatees are colloquially known - have been killed in such collisions in Florida. The risk of such accidents grows in the spring, when the warmer weather attracts more boaters as manatees become more active in rivers and shallow coastal areas.

Cora Berchem, with the Save the Manatee Club in Longwood, Fla, said:

'' manatees are migrating back out to their summer ranges and can pretty much be found in almost all waterways in Florida.''

Boaters should exercise more caution, particularly until the winter season when manatees return to their sanctuary in calmer waters around November.

The mammals are grayish brown with sparse hair across their bodies. Adult manatees have an average length of 9 to 10 feet and weigh about 1,000 pounds or about 450 kilograms.

Last year, there were 632 manatee deaths statewide, which was higher than for each of the previous two years.

Collisions accounted for 25 percent of their deaths in Florida last year, with other factors being a colder-winter and a red-tide bloom, according to state officials.

!WOW! thanks Johnny Diaz.