If Manatees are going that far North, that means the water is warming up.
From the article…
Since December 2020, about one-quarter of the species’ population has died during what federal wildlife officials have dubbed an “unusual mortality event” along the East Coast of Florida.
Worsening water quality appears to be at the center of the phenomenon, researchers say. Excessive nutrients spilling off lawns and farms are fueling the growth of a toxic form of algae, known as red tide, that is fatal to manatees. Such nutrients are also nourishing another type of algae bloom that has wiped out thousands of acres of seagrass, one of the manatee’s primary food sources. Many have starved.
Such pressures are likely to push manatees farther northward.
They are in the Delaware River for a couple weeks now. A friend has been after them in bucks county, no big ones in the boat yet. Have seen reports of some good ones way down near Philly.
