November is Manatee Awareness Month, which celebrates Florida’s famous, adorable marine mammal, affectionately known as the “sea cow.” These round, slow-moving animals are the only marine mammals that are herbivores, meaning their plant-based diet consists of seagrasses and aquatic plants. In fact, manatees can consume 32 pounds of plants every day! On average, manatees can grow 8 to 13 feet long, weigh between 400 to 1,300 pounds, and live for 40 years. They are gray to brownish gray in coloration, with white or pinkish patches on their undersides. Manatees do not travel in large pods, but are often observed alone or in pairs. 

There are only three species of manatees worldwide, which all fall under the order Sirenian, named after the Greek myth of mermaids or “sirens”.  The three existing species of manatees are the West Indian Manatee (which includes the manatees from Florida), the Amazonian Manatee, and the African Manatee. All three manatee species live in warm tropical and subtropical waters. The West Indian and African manatees live along coastlines, while the Amazonian Manatee inhabits freshwater in the Amazon Basin. Unfortunately, all three manatee species are endangered, or in danger of extinction. This is historically due to motor-boat incidents; collisions with boats and wounds inflicted by spinning boat propellers, which are responsible for around 20% of manatee deaths. More recently, sudden changes in warmer water temperatures and algal blooms, as a result of climate change, have caused more manatee mortality.

While it is hard to eliminate all threats to the manatee population, there are ways to help protect these adorable mammals. Some ways include reporting any manatees that are injured, tangled in nets, or orphaned to a nearby wildlife conservation. Also, if you are enjoying a day out on the boat in a manatee habitat, make sure to be aware of your surroundings, give manatees plenty of space, and avoid feeding them. Together, we can all make small changes that can have a big impact for the beloved manatees.

November 21st marks another important celebration for ocean conservation and awareness as it is World Fisheries Day! Fisheries are an integral part of various ecosystems including, of course oceans, but also streams, lakes, meadows, and any other aquatic environments around the globe. A fishery can refer to a couple different things. First and foremost, a fishery is a location on Earth where one can find or catch an aquatic species. In addition, a fishery can be specific to a species, like an Atlantic Salmon fishery. There are freshwater fisheries that are maintained for conservation or recreation through the stocking of fish, which is when fish are raised in a hatchery until their adult stages and then released into wild habitat. World Fisheries Day is a prevalent holiday in India, where fishing has deep cultural and economic roots and makes up the country’s primary agricultural export.

As the global population increases, many countries, in addition to India, are looking for solutions as to how we should feed a growing number of hungry mouths. While taking advantage of wild fisheries is not a new phenomenon, there is certainly a trend towards seafood as a solution for current food scarcity issues. Unfortunately, like any other human practices, fishing can quickly become unsustainable which leads to one of the ocean’s great, looming threats - overfishing. Overfishing is a term used to refer to a circumstance in which more fish are removed than can be replaced by the wild population. The practice of overfishing can be due to a lack of knowledge in existing population sizes and reproduction rates, an ignorance of national, international and regional water laws, and the use of fishing gear that worsens the amount of bycatch. An example of ‘bycatch’ is when a fisherman drags a large net behind the ship along the ocean floor (known as bottom trawling) and the net accidentally catches unwanted species, most commonly dolphins. The decrease in population sizes due to outright overfishing, along with bycatch consequences, has the potential to collapse entire ecosystems and leave our once abundant oceans bare.

Luckily on World Fisheries Day, communities can come together, not only to determine sustainable solutions for feeding populations, but to also celebrate anglers and their applications of new, innovative technology. By replacing unnecessary and harmful technology like bottom trawls and long-lines with purse seins which target the intended fish species, the amount of bycatch can be reduced. Simply by switching out a trawling net with a Turtle Exclusion Device (TED, a small pocket in the net where turtles can escape) can aid in protecting a variety of turtle species that are an important part of the ecological food web. This November 21st we can all participate in World Fisheries Day by taking the time to understand what fishing practices are sustainable, and how we can contribute to sustainable fishing practices through the seafood products we buy.