The Parish Magazine March 2023

feature — 1
The 60 million
year old 'mermaid'
that is becoming
an endangered sea
creature
The Parish Magazine - March 2023 15
WEDNESDAY 29 MARCH: MANATEE APPRECIATION DAY
The manatee, a gentle giant that has roamed the seas for about 60 million
years is rapidly becoming an endangered species — not because it has been
hunted for its meat or its skin, but because of the pollution that is destroying
its food supplies.
Manatees are mentioned at least
12 times in the Bible when God
instructed the Israelites, who were
travelling from captivity in Egypt
to the Promised Holy Land, to use
the skin of a manatee to protect the
sacred tents and worship aids from
the harsh weather they faced in the
desert:
Make a covering for the tent from
ram skins dyed red and a covering of
manatee skins on top of that.
Exodus 26:14
Being a sea mammal, the manatee
would have been on the forbidden
food list for the Jewish people so we
have to wonder how they acquired
the large number of skins they
Lunch time!
Celentano, dreamstime.com
needed, and how they handled
them knowing they had come
from an unclean creature.
ELEPHANT ANCESTRY
Fossils suggest that manatees
evolved from the elephant, and
like the elephant, they are large,
cumbersome herbivores with no
known natural enemy, other than
humans. Some manatees grow
to as much as 4 metres long and
weigh as much as 1,500 kgs.
They graze for up to 8
hours a day on sea grass and
other vegetation and can be
found in salt and fresh water
environments all around the
world. Hence they are sometimes
known as sea cows, although
ancient mariners also called
them mermaids. They are, of
course, nothing like the modern
day 'Walt Disney' image of the
mermaid, although they are said
to have a playful nature.
POLLUTION
There are three families of
manatee: Trichechus inunguis,
the Amazonian manatee;
Trichechus senegalensis,
the West African manatee;
Trichechus manatus, the West
Indian manatee. They are all
fully aquatic and so never leave
the water, although they mainly
Maegan Luckiesh, unsplash.com
inhabit shallow, marshy coastal
areas, springs, rivers, bays, canals,
and estuaries where there is, or in
many cases, used to be, extensive
beds of sea grass and other similar
vegetation.
These are areas of the world where
human pollution is rife with toxic
sewage, manure, and fertilizer waste
that is destroying the manatees' food
supplies.
A worrying number of manatees
are also being killed as a result of
collisions with boats and ships in the
increasingly crowded waters where
they have lived long before boats
were invented.
.
AWARENESS
Sadly today, all the odds seem to
be against the ponderous manatee,
unless the world takes steps to
reduce the pollution of the oceans,
seas, canals and rivers, and this is
what Manatee Appreciation Day held
on the last Wednesday of March each
year, is about.
The awareness day was founded in
1981 by the world’s leading manatee
conservation organization's Save the
Manatee Club.
The club was set up by songwriter
and author, Jimmy Buffet and former
US senator Bob Graham.
The 'club' seeks to protect the
manatee and its habitat from
thoughtless human activities.
To find out more, or to adopt a
manatee, shop and donate to the
Save the Manatee Club go to:
https://www.savethemanatee.org/