Garth Rattray | How now, sea cow – Part Two

I vividly recall being aware of the elusive manatee when I was a child. Incredibly, ancient sailors used to mistake the manatees for mythical mermaids. Several indigenous people of West Africa, the Caribbean, and Central America believe that manatees are powerful water spirits, and hold them sacred. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Maya believed the manatee possessed supernatural powers and used their parts in some religious ceremonies.

In far away parts of the world, there remains a flourishing black market in manatee for their meat, skin and oil, because some Asians believe that they possess curative powers. Although they are no longer hunted in Jamaica and therefore have no natural predators, interaction with human activities has severely diminished their numbers.

Additionally, manatees have a low reproductive rate; their pregnancy lasts 12 to 14 months, and they nurse for 2 years. One in three calves don’t survive to one year, but those that do can live to a ripe old age, as long as mankind and modernisation do not impact them negatively.

When contacted, the body that actively manages manatee conservation, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA), explained that we do not know how many manatees are in Jamaican waters. The last Jamaican aerial reconnaissance survey was in 1998. At that time, 11 animals were recorded. Other sources state that surveys noted only two adults in 1991, and eight adults during two surveys conducted in 1993. Although reports of manatee sighting vary, visual observations estimate that we have less than 100 manatees remaining, and that figure may be as low as between 14 and 30 in total.

We know that climate change, by-catching (accidental catching by commercial fisherfolk), poaching, boat-inflicted trauma, polluted waters, solid and chemical waste, and reduced seagrass are killing off the manatees. NEPA explained that they scheduled “… a two-year project beginning in April 2026 to gather data on the manatee which will inform conservation efforts. Awareness-raising activities will also be conducted”. The thinking is that there needs to be increasing awareness of the status, the habitat requirements, and the threat that manatees face in Jamaica.

When asked if there are international or foreign organisations assisting us with their preservation, NEPA responded that they are being assisted by the Wider Caribbean Manatee Alliance (WCMA), with representatives from the Caribbean, and North, Central and South America. In turn, the WCMA was created, funded and supported by various organisations including Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Fundemar, and Caribbean Biological Corridor (CBC).

The WCMA ensures ease of communication and cohesion between all the stakeholders cooperating in the conservation of the West Indian Manatee.

The WCMA also ensures the seamless sharing of data, skills, and resources. It establishes the framework for expanded support, future reconnaissance surveys, and the capacity-building opportunities.

Manatees are already extinct in the Central African Republic, and probably in Burkina Faso, Angola, Niger, Mali and Chad. Nearer to home, hunting and habitat loss caused local disappearances in Barbados, Saint Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda. Belize, which has one of the largest and healthiest manatee populations in the Caribbean region, and Puerto Rico, which boasts one of the best-studied island populations, supported by conservation programmes, invested heavily in marine conservation, protected areas, and public awareness campaigns, so their manatee populations recovered and stabilised.

The conservation statuses of various species are determined primarily by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. “Threatened” is an umbrella term encompassing multiple high-risk categories. “Endangered” species face the highest immediate risk of extinction, and “vulnerable” is the least severe risk.

Jamaica has one of the smallest Antillean manatee populations. NEPA explained that the IUCN “has classified the West Indian Manatee as Vulnerable C1 (an observed, estimated or projected continuing decline of at least up to a maximum of 100 years in the future)”. Whereas the C1 Sub-criterion projects continuous decline of at least 10 per cent over either the next 10 years or 3 generations (whichever is longer, up to a maximum of 100 years in the future), generally, a C2 Sub-criterion would require an additional estimate of precarious population with severe fragmentation and extreme fluctuations.

The manatee are not just a few wild aquatic creatures that hang around our shores, they bring ecological value to coastlines and represent our biodiversity. They are part of our environmental history as a Caribbean nation. Keeping them entails regulating and minimising the urbanisation of our shorelines, making sure that we, once again, have extensive mangrove forests, encourage healthy seagrass beds, ensure that there are calm shallow coastal areas, and limit boat traffic in designated sanctuaries.

Manatees do not exude the element of ferocity and danger that our crocodiles do, so they do not attract as much media attention or coverage. Their reclusive lifestyle makes them disappear from view, but, as landscapers of our coastlines, they are far more important to our ecology, and therefore economy, than the crocodiles. They trim seagrass, stimulate growth, clear waterways, cycle nutrients, create habitats, and stabilise sediment against erosion and storm surges.

Their existence and survival in our present unwelcoming environment demonstrate a resilience that should be emulated. NEPA has been doing fantastic work for the manatees and has even produced a brochure dedicated solely to those magnificent animals, which can be accessed at nepa.gov.jm.

The miners took special care of their sentinel species, the canary, by keeping them in special cages equipped with dedicated oxygen tanks to revive them if they were overcome by the gas. Likewise, we should take care of ours, the manatee population.

Garth Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice, and author of ‘The Long and Short of Thick and Thin’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.