'The Expectation is That We've Lost Over 2,000 Manatees'
An interview with Kimberleigh Dinkins of Save the Manatee Club. Plus, Halloween mayhem in Ybor City.
Costume-clad celebrants ran for their lives Sunday after gunfire broke out in Ybor City Sunday morning, just as the bars were closing. Two people died in the shooting with another 18 injured. A suspect has been arrested and charged with murder.
CURRENTS
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TOP NEWS
Suspect in early morning Ybor City shooting charged with second-degree murder. ABC Action News
Ybor City business owners question police presence after deadly shooting. WUSF
An entrepreneur and a developer are rebuilding an Ybor City corner. Business Observer $
Florida leads nation in number of cost-burdened renters. WMNF
Tampa Bay ZIP codes among America's top 50 for new apartment completions. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
X Tampa, 29-story coliving tower in downtown Tampa, halts construction. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
Here’s why Floridians, more than other Americans, believe climate change is real. WUSF
Tampa collects another multimillion-dollar federal Safe Streets grant. Tampa Bay Business Journal $
Florida is booming and burning more trash. Residents say it’s making them sick. NBC News
1 driver dead, another injured after incident at Daytona International Speedway, officials say. Fox 13 News
BRIEFS
Hit-and-run solved: Tampa Police Detectives arrested 28-year-old Dameisha
Tyana Ceasar on Friday for her role in the fatal hit-and-run crash involving 57-year-old bicyclist Darrell Lee Dawson. He was struck Oct. 24 in the 1900 block of E. 21st Ave. Ceasar had told family members she hit something, and they contacted detectives with information about her involvement in the crash. Ceasar turned herself in to Tampa Police Detectives. She was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of a crash with death, and driving without a valid driver's license (death or bodily injury). She was subsequently transported to Orient Road Jail.
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WEATHER
Temperatures Remain Cool With Mostly Sunny Skies
Cooler temperatures arrive Wednesday, though temperatures will climb up slightly for the weekend, according to this week’s forecast from The Weather Channel:
MONDAY 🌥️ Partly to mostly cloudy.
🌡️87° / 67° 💦 59% / 79% 🌅 7:39 a.m. / 6:46 p.m.
TUESDAY ☀️ Sunny skies.
🌡️87° / 62° 💦 66% / 74% 🌅 7:40 a.m. / 6:46 p.m.
WEDNESDAY 🌤️ Generally sunny with a few afternoon clouds.
🌡️73° / 53° 💦 53% / 63% 🌅 7:41 a.m. / 6:45 p.m.
THURSDAY 🌤️ Partly cloudy skies.
🌡️80° / 59° 💦 53% / 74% 🌅 7:41 a.m. / 6:44 p.m.
FRIDAY 🌤️ Generally sunny with afternoon clouds.
🌡️82° / 65° 💦 64% / 80% 🌅 7:42 a.m. / 6:43 p.m.
SATURDAY ⛅️ Partly to mostly cloudy.
🌡️85° / 69° 💦 70% / 84% 🌅 7:43 a.m. / 6:43 p.m.
SUNDAY 🌥️ Considerably cloudy. Change your clocks.
🌡️84° / 67° 💦 72% / 90% 🌅 6:44 a.m. / 5:42 p.m.
GET INVOLVED
Civic meetings of note during the coming week.
Monday: Hillsborough County is inviting residents to provide feedback on new plans for the new African American Arts and Cultural Center at 2103 N. Rome Ave., Tampa, the current site of the West Tampa Community Resource Center. Emanuel P. Johnson Recreation Center, 5725 S. 78th St., Tampa. 6:30 p.m.
Tuesday: The finance committee of the Tampa Sports Authority will be recommending that Tech Tower properties be awarded a contract to erect a new cell tower at Rocky Point Golf Course, contingent upon final approval from the city of Tampa. 4201 N. Dale Mabry Hwy., 10:30 a.m.
Wednesday: Hillsborough County Commissioners will consider an agreement with Visit Tampa Bay for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 as the Designated Marketing Organization for Hillsborough County to include out-of-area marketing and promotions to attract tourists and conventions. The term of the agreement is from Oct. 1, 2023, through Sept. 30, 2025, in the amounts of Tourist Development Tax funding up to $25,775,427 in FY 24 and up to $26,824,964 in FY 25. 601 E. Kennedy Blvd., 2nd Floor Boardroom, 9 a.m.
Wednesday: Hillsborough County offers another opportunity for feedback from Hillsborough County residents on the new African American Arts and Cultural Center. West Tampa Community Resource Center, 2103 N. Rome Ave., Tampa. 6:30 p.m.
Thursday: The Tampa City Council will hear a report on whether the city can impose a public safety impact fee and how the city can go about enacting such a fee. The council also will consider an ordinance that would preclude council members from raising their salaries beyond the inflation adjustment. Tampa City Council Chambers, City Hall, 315 E. Kennedy Blvd., 3rd floor, 9 a.m.
Thursday: The Hillsborough County School meets in special meeting to consider the negotiated Economic Salary Proposal and Contract Language with Hillsborough Classroom Teachers Association for Instructional Employees for the 2023-2024 school year. School Board of Hillsborough County, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd., 1:30 p.m.
9 QUESTIONS WITH KIMBERLEIGH DINKINS
‘They Should Have Remained Listed as Endangered’
By Stephen Buel
Kimberleigh Dinkins is a senior conservation associate with the Save the Manatee Club, which advocates for measures to protect the state’s remaining population of Florida and Antillian Manatees. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently announced that it's going to consider adding manatees to the Endangered Species List. Are manatees endangered?
Yes. They've actually been listed as an endangered or threatened species since the Endangered Species Act was passed in the 1960s. In 2017, manatees were downlisted from endangered to threatened. They should have remained listed as endangered because the threats that manatees experience have always been there and they're actually increasing rather than decreasing.
What are those threats?
The primary man-made threat is boat strikes. Over 90 percent of manatees have markings that indicate they've been struck by a boat. Many manatees have been struck more than 10 times. Other things are water quality, another major issue in Florida. From our coasts to our springs to our inland systems, we are experiencing water-quality issues throughout the state. Those came to a head in 2020 and 2021 when there was a massive loss of seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon, and that led to the death by starvation of over a thousand manatees. So, boat strikes, water-quality issues on both the east and west coast, entanglement in fishing line and fishing lures, old crab traps. Those are all risks.
How many manatees are there in Florida and elsewhere in the United States, and how many have we lost in recent years?
The recent synaptic surveys, which is what is conducted every year during the coldest time in the winter, indicates that there's about 6,000 manatees. In 2015 and 2016, there was an abundance survey that showed there were about 8,000 manatees. Manatees are typically found just in the southeastern coastal regions and waterways in the United States, but we know that we lost at least a thousand to that starvation event. We are seeing decreases in the number of calves that are being born. So the expectation is that we've lost over 2,000 manatees. We've had unusual mortality events due to cold weather. We've had it due to seagrass loss and starvation. There's also red tide on the West Coast; a number of deaths have been cataloged from that.
What additional protections would endangered status confer upon manatees?
Endangered status would lead to more attention and resources being paid to manatee research and manatee protection efforts. One good thing about the manatee having been listed originally with the Endangered Species Act is that under those protections that were initially in place, the downgrading to threatened really didn't mean anything different in terms of protections for them, but the amount of resources that were provided did decrease. So we're hopeful that with an uplisting, those resources would be allocated.
What steps could government agencies take to protect manatees?
Our biggest challenge is enforcement of regulations already in place. Florida did a great job throughout the early 2000s — a good job maybe — of establishing manatee protection zones that require slow speeds and areas where boats might not be able to get into. Also properly enforcing the Clean Water Act and our total maximum daily load requirements on the water-quality side would also help manatees. Another big threat is lack of natural warm-water habitats. So as our energy sources change and we move away from coal-fired power plants, those warm water discharges will be discontinued. We have dammed up a lot of natural areas that manatees could potentially go that have springs. We've changed our coastlines and hardened those areas, changing the landscape of where manatees might have previously been able to access. Over half of manatees rely on those warm-water outfalls from power plant discharges. So making sure that there's natural habitat for them during wintertime is important.
I understand that Inglis Dam up on the Withlacoochee River basically keeps manatees from making it to Rainbow Springs. Has anyone ever proposed removing that?
The area that we are mainly focused on, that we know could provide some immediate relief for manatees, is the removal of the Rodman Dam on the Ocklawaha River. More manatees are using the St. John's River after that unprecedented seagrass loss on the East Coast. That's been the main focus as a dam removal project in the state, not so much Inglis.
In June, Governor DeSantis chose not to veto Florida legislation that will prevent cities or counties from enacting new fertilizer bans until July 1 of next year. Was that a mistake?
Anything that limits local government's ability to protect their waterways or improve water quality within their jurisdiction is a mistake. With the shortened timeline that the University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension was granted to look at this situation, we know there's not new research coming out of it. If there is to be a ban, it needs to be scientifically based. And we are hearing more communities that are reporting positive results from these fertilizer bans than the opposite. It raises awareness and lets people know there are alternatives to those higher fertilizer use plants and landscaping methods that might encourage them to put in more native landscaping and use less water and use less fertilizer.
What else should people know about the efforts to save manatees?
They should know that Save the Manatee Club has been around for over 40 years, and we are actively pursuing those protections for manatees related to water quality improvements and voting safety that not only protects manatees, but protects Floridians as well, and our lifestyle here. There is an inextricable link between what we are doing in Florida and what is protective of manatees that helps everybody have a better quality of life here.
And Save the Manatee Club, of course, has been around since Jimmy Buffet helped to found it. What was his environmental legacy?
I think raising awareness for manatees and he really promoted the Florida lifestyle, which manatees also represent. So kind of making that link between what is important to Floridians and again, what's important for manatees, and his continued involvement for the entire existence of Save the Manatee Club up until his death.
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CURRENTS
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BAY AREA
Ybor City businesses impacted by shooting investigation. Spectrum Bay News 9
FHP: 2 men pulled over, arrested for driving 130 mph over Gandy Bridge. 10 Tampa Bay
The Tampa Bay fishin’ report: Sheepshead showing up in greater numbers. Tampa Beacon
New Kids On the Block making stop in Tampa next summer. News Channel 8
FLORIDA
Hurricanes are getting stronger faster, research shows. Axios
New disturbances pop up near Bahamas, over Caribbean Sea. News Channel 8
Amid Florida insurance crisis, investors and a senator see opportunity. Tampa Bay Times $
South Florida’s rise as a global business hub. South Florida Business Journal $
Report: Florida's small business survival record spotty. Business Observer $
A Seminole swarming: Florida State plays best 60 minutes of season in walloping of Wake Forest. Tomahawk Nation
Good, bad and ugly: Gators Wire reacts to Georgia's beatdown of Florida. Gators Wire
POLITICS
Ron DeSantis seeks to nationalize ‘universal school choice’. Florida Politics
Israel-Palestinian conflict hangs over gathering of Florida Democrats. Florida Politics
DeSantis' efforts to shut down pro-Palestinian groups on Florida campuses is likely illegal, says experts. Creative Loafing
Spurned by moderates and MAGA: How DeSantis’s coalition has deflated. The Washington Post $
Vocal on Israel, DeSantis Is challenged on his silence on neo-Nazis in Florida. The New York Times $
COMMENTARY
In Florida, apocalyptic politics are clouding the U.S. response to the Israel-Hamas conflict. Florida Phoenix
These days, it’s Florida developers who are sneaking in and swiping natural resources from the public. Florida Phoenix
ABOUT US
Editors: Judith M. Gallman and Stephen Buel
Contributing editors: The Navigator is seeking contributors