美国国家公共电台 NPR--Saving starving manatees will mean saving this crucial lagoon habitat

Saving starving manatees² will mean saving this crucial lagoon³ habitat

Transcript⁴

Not long ago, seagrass spanned the 156-mile Indian River Lagoon like a vast underwater meadow, nourished by sunlight that reached through the crystalline water. The lagoon, an estuary⁵ on Florida's east coast, is among the most biodiverse on the continent, and has been a crucial habitat for manatees. But today its underwater meadow is gone.

Decades of nutrient⁶ pollution flowing from fast-growing communities and farm lands along the lagoon's shores have left the water cloudy with harmful algal blooms, which can prevent sunlight from reaching the seagrass below. In parts of the lagoon as much as 96 percent of the seagrass has been lost, leading to a record die-off of some 1,100 manatees in Florida last year.

But a quick boat trip from the city of Satellite Beach, in one spot where the lagoon water laps at the thick mangroves of a tiny island, a small but vital effort is underway to regrow the seagrass.

From an idling pontoon, Nicholas Frank Sanzone, the city's environmental programs coordinator⁷, says some 13,500 seagrass plugs were planted last year within this one-acre site, along with oysters⁸ and clams⁹ to serve as natural water filters. The effort was successful, until an animal – perhaps a manatee¹, he says – swept in and ate all the seagrass.

"If we can get seagrass to grow here," Sanzone says, "the odds¹⁰ are that we can get it to grow in similar locations throughout the lagoon."

Cleaning up the polluted lagoon could take decades and cost billions

Florida's staggering manatee die-off now is projected to last for years, and wildlife agencies are bracing¹¹ for the worst by expanding their rescue and rehabilitation¹² program. They have resorted to providing supplemental lettuce¹³ for starving manatees. Already this year some 420 are dead in Florida, a number that tracks closely with this time last year.

But the wildlife agencies say they have no way of measuring how effective the lettuce has been at preventing more deaths and acknowledge the manatees need a lot more than lettuce. Saving the federally protected manatees, they say, means saving this habitat, a monumental effort.

The Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, estimates a comprehensive restoration of the lagoon would cost $5 billion and take some 20 to 30 years to complete.

"Nobody has done this scale of restoration, from a system this impacted," says Virginia Barker, director of Brevard County's Natural Resources Management Department.

Some 70 percent of the Indian River Lagoon is situated¹⁴ in Brevard County, home to the Kennedy Space Center. Of the six counties where the lagoon flows Brevard has offered up the most money for restoration at $542 million, funded by a half-cent sales tax voters approved after a widespread fish kill in 2016.

The restoration involves wastewater treatment plant upgrades, septic-to-sewer conversions¹⁵, hundreds of stormwater treatment projects and dredging from the lagoon's bottom vast amounts of muck representing decades of accumulated debris¹⁶ associated with fish and seagrass die-offs.

Barker says the effort is showing promise, but it was developed at a time when seagrass still was present in large swaths of the lagoon.

"The amount of nutrient reduction that is needed to flip¹⁷ that system back to a seagrass-dominated, oligotrophic system may be much more than what the prior modeling had indicated," she says. An oligotrophic system is one that is more pristine¹⁸ with little to no nutrient pollution.

"We have a dust bowl underwater," Barker says. "So how do you restore tens of thousands of acres of seagrass to an underwater dust bowl, where there's nothing to hold those sediments¹⁹ still?"

There are also fears that the harmful algal blooms could get worse as water temperatures warm with climate change.

Many more species than manatee are being harmed

The Florida Legislature has budgeted millions of dollars for manatee habitat restoration. The funding will go toward a series of projects, several of them involving re-growing seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon, including at Satellite Beach. The lagoon also gets funding from federal and state agencies including the EPA, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, St. Johns River Water Management District and South Florida Water Management District.

The infrastructure²⁰ measure President Biden signed into law in November includes money for an Everglades restoration project aimed at improving flows into the southern part of the lagoon.

But the costs associated with wastewater treatment plant upgrades and septic-to-sewer conversions are enormous, and without dedicated²¹ funding for that, real change will be difficult, Barker says. Even simply creating such a long-term plan for restoration is a challenge.

"Why would you take the limited dollars that you have to do that design and permitting if you have no idea whether you're going to be able to come up with the construction funds three to five years down the road, when you're ready for that stage of the process," she says.

The Save the Manatee Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders²² of Wildlife have sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court over the manatees' habitat. The groups want the federal agency to update and strengthen habitat protections under the Endangered Species Act that they say have not been revised since 1976. They've also filed a notice of intent to sue the EPA over water pollution, primarily in the Indian River Lagoon.

Pat Rose is executive director of the Save the Manatee Club and an aquatic²³ biologist who has spent 40 years trying to help the marine²⁴ mammals. He says the Indian River Lagoon's needs are urgent because the widespread loss of seagrass also affects many other species, including sea turtles and even dolphins, who have fewer fish to eat."This is a situation we thought never would happen," he says, "and it certainly never should have happened."

This story is a collaboration²⁵ between Inside Climate News and WMFE Orlando, a member of ICN's National Reporting Network-Southeast.

1 manatee   

n.海牛

参考例句：

• We watched dolphin,manatee,sea lion and whale shows.我们看了海豚、海牛、海狮和鲸的表演。
• One of the most extraordinary river creatures is Amazonian manatee.其中河里最特别的生物之一要数亚马孙海牛。

2 manatees   

n.海牛（水生哺乳动物，体宽扁，尾圆，有鳃状肢）( manatee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The manatees tamed quickly. 海牛很快地被驯服。 来自互联网
• Gentle and slow moving, manatees are said to be the mythical mermaids of sailors' imaginations. 海牛游动温和而缓慢，被认为是海员遐想中富有神秘色彩的美人鱼。 来自互联网

3 lagoon   

n.泻湖，咸水湖

参考例句：

• The lagoon was pullulated with tropical fish.那个咸水湖聚满了热带鱼。
• This area isolates a restricted lagoon environment.将这一地区隔离起来使形成一个封闭的泻湖环境。

4 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

5 estuary   

n.河口，江口

参考例句：

• We live near the Thames estuary.我们的住处靠近泰晤士河入海口。
• The ship has touched bottom.The estuary must be shallower than we thought.船搁浅了。这河口的水比我们想像的要浅。

6 nutrient   

adj.营养的，滋养的；n.营养物，营养品

参考例句：

• Magnesium is the nutrient element in plant growth.镁是植物生长的营养要素。
• The roots transmit moisture and nutrient to the trunk and branches.根将水分和养料输送到干和枝。

7 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

8 oysters   

牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We don't have oysters tonight, but the crayfish are very good. 我们今晚没有牡蛎供应。但小龙虾是非常好。
• She carried a piping hot grill of oysters and bacon. 她端出一盘滚烫的烤牡蛎和咸肉。

9 clams   

n.蛤；蚌，蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The restaurant's specialities are fried clams. 这个餐厅的特色菜是炸蚌。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We dug clams in the flats et low tide. 退潮时我们在浅滩挖蛤蜊。 来自辞典例句

10 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

11 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

12 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

13 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

14 situated   

adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的

参考例句：

• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。
• She is awkwardly situated.她的处境困难。

15 conversions   

变换( conversion的名词复数 )； （宗教、信仰等）彻底改变； （尤指为居住而）改建的房屋； 橄榄球（触地得分后再把球射中球门的）附加得分

参考例句：

• He kicked a penalty goal and two conversions, ie in Rugby football. 他一次罚球得分，两次触地后射门得分（在橄榄球赛中）。
• Few of the intermediates or enzymes involved in these conversions have been isolated from higher plants. 在这些转变中包含的少数中间产物或酶已经从高等植物中分离出来。

16 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

17 flip   

vt.快速翻动；轻抛；轻拍；n.轻抛；adj.轻浮的

参考例句：

• I had a quick flip through the book and it looked very interesting.我很快翻阅了一下那本书，看来似乎很有趣。
• Let's flip a coin to see who pays the bill.咱们来抛硬币决定谁付钱。

18 pristine   

adj.原来的，古时的，原始的，纯净的，无垢的

参考例句：

• He wiped his fingers on his pristine handkerchief.他用他那块洁净的手帕擦手指。
• He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.他本不想去玷污那清白的过去。

19 sediments   

沉淀物( sediment的名词复数 )； 沉积物

参考例句：

• When deposited, 70-80% of the volume of muddy sediments may be water. 泥质沉积物沉积后，体积的70-80％是水。
• Oligocene erosion had truncated the sediments draped over the dome. 覆盖于穹丘上的沉积岩为渐新世侵蚀所截削。

20 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

21 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

22 defenders   

n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者

参考例句：

• The defenders were outnumbered and had to give in. 抵抗者寡不敌众，只能投降。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• After hard fighting,the defenders were still masters of the city. 守军经过奋战仍然控制着城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 aquatic   

adj.水生的，水栖的

参考例句：

• Aquatic sports include swimming and rowing.水上运动包括游泳和划船。
• We visited an aquatic city in Italy.我们在意大利访问过一个水上城市。

24 marine   

adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵

参考例句：

• Marine creatures are those which live in the sea. 海洋生物是生存在海里的生物。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

25 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。