A manatee munches on romaine lettuce during the winter of 2022-23 at a power plant near Titusville, Florida, as part of a program to help fend off starvation in the iconic marine mammals.

(Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation Commission)

At a Glance

Florida manatees munched on nearly 400,000 pounds of romaine lettuce at the feeding site this winter.The program targets manatees in the Indian River Lagoon, where seagrass has disappeared.The area has seen a mass die-off of manatees in recent years.

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F​lorida manatees munched on more than 399,000 pounds of romaine lettuce at a state feeding site over the winter months.

T​he trial program, in its second year, could be one reason for a decline in manatee deaths, but scientists warn that doesn't mean the challenges facing manatees are gone.

“I think we need to understand this is a . It’s not going to get solved overnight,” Cora Berchen, a manatee research associate with the Save the Manatee Club, told WFTV. “A lot of people would like to see a quick change. But I like to say it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint.”

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T​he feeding program provides the leafy greens to manatees wintering in warm waters next to a power plant near Titusville, Florida. The power plant sits on the , a primary habitat and migration route for manatees along the state's East Coast.

A​nd while it may be helping manatees there, dozens of the marine mammals are suspected or confirmed to have died from along the state's West Coast since Jan. 1.

Romaine lettuce is shredded to feed manatees during the winter of 2022-23 at a power plant near Titusville, Florida, as part of a program to help fend off starvation.

(Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation Commission)

State and national wildlife agencies the daily feedings as an attempt to fend off manatee starvation in the lagoon, a 156-mile estuary that parallels the Atlantic Ocean from near Daytona Beach on its north end to Palm Beach County on its south end.

T​he program cost $250,000 this year and was largely funded by private donors.

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Seagrass is the main component of a manatee's diet in the wild. But pollution, algae blooms and other issues have decimated the area's seagrass beds in recent years.

M​anatee deaths have declined dramatically since the feeding program started, but biologists say they can't be sure there is a definitive link. Other factors, such as two relatively warm winters in a row, may also be a factor.

Plus, there are concerns over the long-term effects of the lack of food for manatees in the lagoon.

"We also have to see to their reproduction over coming years," Martine de Wit, lead veterinarian at FWC's marine mammal pathobiology lab in the Tampa Bay area, told Florida Today.

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S​o far this year, manatees have died in Florida. That's less than half the number by the end of March in either of the last two years.

In all of 2021, there were 1,100 manatee deaths reported in Florida. That's since the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission began keeping track in 1974. Many of the dead animals were found in the Indian River Lagoon, their bodies emaciated with signs of starvation. Many rescued manatees were in similarly bad shape.

Eight-hundred manatees died in .

L​ike last winter, the feeding and monitoring site at the power plant was stood up in December and shut down in March when manatees typically begin to venture back out into other parts of the lagoon as temperatures warm.

Manatee rescue efforts have ramped up in recent years, too. So far this year manatees have been rescued statewide, according to the FWC. That compares to 106 in all of 2022.

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