Manatees Make Comeback on Caribbean
First Published in the Tico Times in 2010.
by Shawn Larkin
A manatee comeback in Costa Rica could mean more jobs – not to mention manatees – on the southern Caribbean coast.
These
lovable sea mammals, bigger around than a cow or a horse and about as
long as a compact car, are for-real sirens of the order Sirenia, which
includes manatees and dugongs. The “sea cows” already support the
economies of places like Crystal River, Florida, and San San Pond Sak,
Panama, which were visionary enough to give manatees protected areas,
enforce the rules and make local communities stakeholders.
The manatee is a more welcome sight on the Talamanca coast.
Manatees used to range all over the Caribbean and tropical
Americas, but habitat destruction, boat propellers, pollution and
overhunting took care of that. Just a few years ago, they were a rare
sight in the Caribbean waters of Talamanca, in southern Limón province.
Many people hunted them for the “29 kind a sweet meat” that some locals
liked to eat. They hunted them until not one hunter could find one
manatee.
As people began to dive the waters, and then come see
dolphins, and then fish for tarpon, the hunters found easier, more
lucrative work in tourism. And started eating more chicken. And stopped
hunting manatees. And the manatees came back.
But perhaps the
biggest reason the manatees came back is that a short swim away, in
Panama’s San San Pond Sak wetlands, is a protected area where people
watch over the manatees, feed them, and educate others.
It seems
the manatees know a good thing when they see it, as the San San Pond Sak
population is reported to have grown much faster than normal
reproduction would allow. Are manatees flocking there because they know
people are protecting them from people?
Would manatees flock to
Costa Rica’s Gandoca Lagoon, in the Gandoca-Manzanillo National Wildlife
Refuge, with some help from people? Manatees can now be found in the
sea in front of Gandoca Lagoon most days, and they often show up at
Punta Mona and Manzanillo. But while the Gandoca, like San San Pond Sak,
is perfect manatee habitat, there are few manatees in the lagoon, and
those you can find are very wary, probably because no one appears to be
protecting these protected waters.
Most locals say the lagoon is
being hunted heavily by illegal poachers inside the refuge. Tourists
kayaking in the lagoon are treated to the daily sounds of baying hunting
hounds as the mangroves are poached. Reports indicate that illegal
fishing appears to be a daily and nightly occurrence.
That’s not
all. The “protected” seas out front are being poached harder than they
have in many years. Dozens of illegal nets on buoys inside the refuge
have been the norm this September and October. The famous
interspecies-communicating Guyana and bottlenose dolphins of the area,
along with turtles and fish and manatees, must navigate a maze of death
every day.
Sadly, that’s not all the manatees have to worry about.
A couple of days ago, as we looked for manatees off Manzanillo Beach, a
group of people with Jet Skis on trailers showed up. They began to
blaze over the waters, the reefs and the sea grass beds the manatees
seek to graze. After a few hours, a lone park ranger showed up and
explained that Jets Skis are illegal in the refuge. After being shouted
down by a crowd of boisterous people, the ranger told them to just go
farther out, and he left.
The Jet Skis continued as before.
Snorkelers left the water. Bathers left the water. Divers did not go
out. No manatees or interspecies-communicating dolphins were seen that
day.
Costa Rica’s Caribbean needs help protecting its marine
heritage. Perhaps its time for nonprofit environmental group MarViva or
someone else to help enforce the rules. The Caribbean monk seal is
already extinct. It’s time to protect Caribbean waters before a manatee
comeback turns into a last-time harvest of “29 kinds a sweet meat.”
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