Yes, Florida has to follow the Endangered Species Act when it comes to protecting its beloved, highly imperiled manatees — at least for now, a federal appeals court has ruled.

Reading up on this case is a down-the-rabbit-hole experience that leaves casual observers wondering “What the heck is going on here?” For most Floridians, it’s a given that the state would prioritize protecting manatees — particularly those who understand that the threats to manatees also carry potentially deadly implications for the state’s major water bodies. State officials shouldn’t need a federal law to force them to fight against the hazards to the environment they are supposed to be protecting — a mission that is right there in the name of the department that was fighting the lawsuit.

Yet here was the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, arguing in federal court that it should not be required to follow the mandates of a well-known law.

The courts aren’t buying it. Last week’s 2-1 decision by the 11th District Court of Appeals in Atlanta upholds an April 25 order by U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza. Mendoza agreed with the advocacy group’s argument that the state wasn’t doing nearly enough to protect manatees from pollution. Few people who are paying attention can argue with that conclusion.

Failure to protect

It’s somewhat surreal to see the state fighting to make manatees’ survival less certain — especially after a decade that has seen the worst manatee die-offs in modern history. And here’s the absurdity: The court order the DEP was fighting didn’t really force the state to step up its efforts to clean up the troubled waters where so many manatees are dying. It didn’t even order the state to absolutely block new pollution sources. It just said Florida had to abide by the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, which require the state to seek an “incidental take permit” whenever its activities might impact a protected species. In the interim, Mendoza ordered a few modest changes that will keep matters from getting worse.

This is nothing new — long-term residents will remember Volusia County’s lawsuit that pitted endangered sea turtles against the cars that crowded many stretches of the county’s beaches. It took years, but in the end the county won a federal ESA permit, combined with a habitat conservation plan that preserved driving while adapting measures that protected turtle nests.

The state should not fight the appellate decision. That would be wasting time and money that would be far better spent cleaning up the troubled waters where manatees and myriad other species are suffering and starving.

In truth, this decision is a small spark of good news that would shine much more brightly if manatees weren’t facing threats that seem almost insurmountable over the long run. Decades of despoiling water bodies have taken a terrible toll, filling water bodies with fetid algae that blocks sunlight and smothers the native seagrass beds that are a main food source for manatees.

The damage can easily be seen in the Indian River Lagoon, which reaches from Volusia to Martin along Florida’s east coast and is heralded as the nation’s most diverse estuary. Other sections of the Intracoastal Waterway are also showing degradation. First came the disgusting pictures of waters so fouled that they were often compared to rotting guacamole. Then the reports of dead and dying manatees so emaciated that they appeared to have been Photoshopped in half.

Surreally, the state accused the group of suing simply because it was “upset” at seeing the slaughter taking place in Florida’s waters, where 3,658 manatees died from Jan. 1, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2024. Any right-minded Floridian would be upset, but Mendoza easily found that the group had more than emotion on its side. It had science — and evidence of inaction.

Science and sacrifice

Florida officials know exactly what’s going on in the lagoon, and in other water bodies (such as the pure freshwater springs that are now showing significant traces of contamination). It’s the gas and oil residue from thousands of cars driving down the road. It’s the fertilizer from millions of lawns. The seepage from more than 300,000 septic tanks in the Indian River Lagoon basin alone. The filth runs off into rivers and lakes, seeps into the ground and makes its way into the lagoon. By 2019, approximately 58% of seagrass beds in the lagoon had disappeared. In some parts, the eradication is close to 95%

The manatees are not the only ones who depend on seagrass. Many game-fish species spawn in the waving beds of eelgrass and other species. Birds often feed in the shallower areas. The seagrass is a crucial element of the lagoon’s survival, and scientists are frantically searching for ways to reverse the damage.

The danger goes even further than that, truth be told. The same contaminants that are fouling the lagoon are seeping into Florida’s drinking water supply. There may come a time when the vast underground aquifers are no longer sufficient to meet the needs of this fast-growing state.

Yet one of the elements the state was fighting in Mendoza’s order was a requirement to stop permitting new septic tanks. It just gets stranger.

This suit should be a wake-up call: The leaders of the state’s environmental protection efforts can’t drag their heels any longer, or actively enable new potential sources of degradation. The time to clean up the Indian River Lagoon and other critical water bodies is running out.

Here’s one statistic that makes that clear. The annual death toll for manatees had declined in the past few years, from the 2022 high of 1,100 to 565 in 2024. But 2025 has already seen 414 deaths, with more than five months to go.

There is no excuse — legal, or otherwise — to fight against legal mandates to save these beloved animals, or for the state to shirk its duty to protect all Florida’s creatures, including manatees and the humans who love them.

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The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Executive Editor Roger Simmons and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com.

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