Death of local animals point to estuary in danger

In Melbourne, Florida, sudden deaths of three manatees in the Banana River have caused some suspicion of what is really going on in the water. Even more manatees, along with other animals such as pelicans and bottlenose dolphins, have been dying in the same stretch of water. Troy Rice, who directs the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, fears that an ecosystem that supports more than 4,000 species is collapsing under the large amount of pollution over the past few decades. In 2011 and 2012, unknown blooms of algae coated the estuary, killing many fields of underwater sea grass, blocking many necessities for both fish and manatees. Along with the blooms of algae, off Brevard County, the estuary is swamped with nitrogen, which is mostly found in fertilizers, organic matter and waste. There have been limits to dump nitrogen-rich matter, but non-point sources of pollution, like lawn fertilizer and septic tanks, have been harder to control. According to surveys in 2011 and 2012, the waters off Brevard have 45% more nitrogen than expected. There have been indications that the fertilizer runoffs are a major contributions of the growing algae blooms. Although the manatees were in good health when they died, looking inside, there intestines were severely irritated and shocked. Also, there was macroalgae that was in the three stomachs. According to Martine de Wit, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, "We hypothesize that whatever caused these manatees to die was either ingested or gotten through drinking; its logical to think it's the macroalgae that they ingested." There are still some skeptics of whether they are jumping to conclusion or not. If these unexpected deaths continue, the implications are unknown. I found this article interesting because we don't know that dumping waste and nitrogen-rich products into the water is killing animals that are beloved by all. Also, I really like these animals and don't want to see them die without explanation. The ocean and the animals that live in it are very important to us. We have to take care of it.