Manatees' Status May Change

"We've entered the witching hour of the Bush administration, where there are going to be frantic lame-duck attempts to do under the table what they cannot pass through Congress," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, an environmental group, which obtained the memo.

Florida manatees and their legal protections have been the subject of a years-long battle pitting environmentalists against some Florida developers and boating groups. The animals enter other states during the summer, but nearly all winter in Florida.

By all accounts, the Florida manatee population has increased since the 1970s.

Boating speed limits, or no-wake zones, are believed to have reduced collisions. At the same time, development restrictions helped limit construction in manatee habitats.

But the species continues to face threats from increased boat traffic, red-tide outbreaks and waterfront development. The planned closure of some coastal power plants, which have become an artificial refuge because they release warm water that hundreds of manatees have come to rely on in winter months, is also considered potentially catastrophic.

Boating groups and developers have lobbied to ease some rules meant to protect the animals, arguing that the manatee population has stabilized and is big enough.

A letter from lobbyist Wade Hopping put it this way: "I would hope that instead of using the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act as devices to limit the growth of boating in Florida that we would focus on a plan that would calculate with scientific certainty how many manatees Florida waters can support and proceed to develop a system to ensure that that number of healthy manatees share the waters of the state with Florida's responsible boaters."

Developers and boating groups recorded a major victory last year, when Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved dropping "endangered" in favor of "threatened." All seven commissioners were appointed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R).

The coming dispute over the manatees will revolve around the size and stability of the current population.

A 2006 Florida Fish and Wildlife study, used by the state panel that recommended the reclassification, predicted that the population could drop about 30 percent over the next three generations.

"There are many people working in field for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who would agree this is not the time to down-list the species," Rose said. "My hope is that the administration will listen."