Among the many reasons to appreciate Florida manatees, there is one simple truth: they’re not hard to find if you know where to look. During Florida’s cold season, manatees find their way to warm, natural springs; the balmy waters around power plants; and natural and manmade basins of thermal heat that stay warm all winter. Florida manatees, like palm trees and mangos, are tropical species that can’t live in colder waters north of Florida, so from mid-November to April they need places above 68 degrees. It’s warm water or nothing for Florida manatees.
In November, as the weather turns colder, many manatees move across the state’s waterways to shelter safely in warm-water sites, then reverse course when waterways warm up in the summer. When moving between waterways, they must avoid dredging operations, coastal development, and boats. They must also navigate manmade obstacles that should be simple to solve: dams and their locks.
Of the roughly 90,000 dams in the United States, most provide services like hydroelectric power generation, flood protection, and water retention for irrigation. The large pools that dams create can become recreational destinations. None of Florida’s many dams provide energy production. Few of them supply anyone with water for irrigation, and fewer for drinking. So, why do these manatee barricades exist in Florida?
Over the decades, Floridians have often found economic and ecological flaws in the original plans to shift major waterways, at costs for wildlife and communities. The idea behind the failed Cross Florida Barge Canal, which started in 1935 and was permanently halted in 1971, was to make the long, hazardous trip around the peninsula of Florida unnecessary for big ships carrying goods by building a canal that would run across the state, chopping it into rough thirds, starting at the Ocklawaha and St. Johns River on the eastern side of Florida and the Withlacoochee on the west. Despite $5 million being allocated by the federal government in 1935, canal work was halted just a year later due to reported negative impacts to groundwater. Even nearly 100 years ago, people discovered that permanently altering the waters of North Florida was a bad idea.
Unfortunately, the canal was eyed for improving national defense in World War 1, 2 and the Cold War. Lyndon Johnson resurrected the project in 1963, passing legislation for construction once again. In 1968, the Rodman Dam (later renamed Rodman/Kirkpatrick) was completed, cutting of the flow of the Ocklawaha and St. Johns Rivers in northeastern Florida. To build it, the Army Corps of Engineers flattened thousands of cypress trees along the 80-mile river, leaving dead standing timber and partially submersed stumps. Three years later, President Nixon stopped construction of the canal again to prevent “potentially serious environmental damages.” For these rivers and the wildlife in them, though, it was too late: damage had been done.
The very thing that was meant to improve boat navigation in Central Florida made the Ocklawaha, Silver and St. Johns River more impassable to not only people, but to Florida manatees. To this day, the Rodman/Kirpatrick Dam and Buckman Lock impede manatees’ movement between winter and summer waters and can cause fatal injuries when lock equipment malfunctions. A 2023 report shows 12 known manatee deaths caused by being crushed in this dam system between 1974 and 2020. According to our state’s wildlife agency, at least five more have been documented and officially recorded since 2020. Further complicating matters, one of the gate systems used to raise and lower the level between the pool created by the dam and the surrounding river is only open four days a week. The operation only occurs Thursday-Sunday. If you’re a manatee looking to move to other waters on a Monday, you’re out of luck.
So, what can we do? It is not too late to remove enough of the dam to allow manatees, fish and even people to pass through. Denying this threatened species access to the warm waters in nearby Silver Springs is unnecessary. The simple solution: restore the natural flow to Ocklawaha’s river system. You can support this effort here: Pledge to Restore the Ocklawaha River - Reunite the Rivers.
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