News

By Elizabeth Neville, Director of Environmental Law and Policy

Policy engagement is an important way that Save the Manatee Club (SMC) protects manatees and their habitat. This work includes advocating for the passage of manatee-positive laws, opposing harmful laws, securing appropriate funding for critical programs, and holding government actors accountable to their legal directives.

Restoring natural warm-water habitat for manatees is a major policy priority for SMC. This is urgently important because thousands of manatees presently rely on warm-water discharges from artificial sources such as power plants to keep warm in the winter, and many of these plants will soon change their technology to systems that do not discharge warm water. In 2020, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) produced a management goal document, the Florida Manatee Warm-Water Habitat Action Plan, to address this issue. Ensuring that the agency has adequate funding to carry out the plan—as well as other important manatee research and management work—is a major policy priority for SMC. State and federal agency funding, generally, is essential for manatee conservation; SMC advocates that FWC and other agencies, such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have the resources they need to carry out their water quality and wildlife protection directives.

An unparalleled opportunity to restore warm-water habitat for manatees lies in reconnecting the Ocklawaha River to the rest of the Great Florida Riverway, a 217-mile, multi-county system of rivers and springs. For over 50 years, a dam constructed for the long-defunct Cross Florida Barge Canal project has obstructed the Ocklawaha’s flow. Breaching the dam and restoring the river will provide manatees with their historic, natural access to the 20 “lost springs” of the Ocklawaha and open access to important habitat in the Silver River and Silver Springs. SMC will be encouraging our state’s leaders to reunite these rivers in the 2026 legislative session, and we need your voice. Please visit reunitetherivers.com/ocklawaha-restoration-pledge to sign the pledge to support Ocklawaha restoration today!

Restoring the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), where seagrass loss caused a multi-year Unusual Mortality Event whereby over 1,200 manatees starved to death, is another policy priority. SMC supports restoring the IRL by advocating appropriate funding for the National Estuary Program and other state and federal programs that work to improve water quality and restore seagrass in this important ecosystem.

In addition to restoring habitat directly, SMC is dedicated to ensuring that Florida’s communities can protect their wild spaces. The Florida legislature has passed problematic bills preempting the ability of local communities to reasonably manage sources of damage and pollution on their lands (e.g., plastic products). Senate Bill 180, passed in the 2025 Florida legislative session with language restricting land-use changes in disaster-impacted areas, is a deleterious example of preemption. SMC is committed to fighting harmful preemption so that Florida’s communities are free to manage their own lands without state interference.

Manatee conservation implicates many laws and policies, from bedrock federal laws such as the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act to state-based regulations governing the management of individual springs. This Manatee Awareness Month and beyond, SMC is committed to policies that matter to manatees, from defending our foundational laws to advocating sensible boating policies in Florida communities.