| 中文名稱 | 瀕危現狀 |
| 英文名稱 | endangered status |
| 定 義 | 某一物種或生態系統當前的受威脅狀況。 |
| 套用學科 | 資源科技（一級學科），動物資源學（二級學科） |
基本介紹
- 中文名：瀕危現狀
- 外文名：endangered status
Endangered status
Faced with the largest number of manatee deaths in a decade, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is considering an inconceivable reaction: stripping away the legal protections for the vulnerable sea cows.
Later this summer, the commission will vote on a staff recommendation that manatees no longer be considered endangered but merely threatened. If the commission approves, restrictions that have kept in check boat speeds, seawalls, docks and waterfront home-building and other dangers to the manatees and their habitats could be diluted or eliminated.
Endangered species have fewer and fewer friends in Washington and Tallahassee. While the Endangered Species Act is under attack in Congress, the staff of the wildlife commission is looking beyond manatees. They also recommend protections for the bald eagle be dropped entirely because the population has risen, even as development continues virtually unchecked. But the manatees appear to face the most immediate threat from the proposed changes.
Because of the very rules that the commission may weaken, the manatee population has stabilized and even grown in recent years. As a reward for struggling against the odds, the 3,000 or so manatees still alive may be forced to dodge even more speeding boats and slashing propellers as they slip through the coastal waters they share with nearly 1-million Florida boaters.
The commission has been lobbied hard by developers, boaters and others who maintain that the manatee protection rules are too restrictive and, now that the population is showing signs of recovery, unnecessary. That's like saying that because the number of teenage smokers is going down, the government should relax its efforts to keep teens from picking up the habit. Why mess with success?
To be sure, the specific impact of the proposed change in manatee protection rules is somewhat speculative, because manatees have always been considered endangered. But any weakening of the rules can only lead in one direction - more and bigger docks, high boat speed limits, more degradation of habitat.
When the commission takes up the issue, it should insist that the boating and development industry demonstrate real harm from the manatee protection rules. With the number of Florida boaters at an all-time high and coastal development booming statewide, it should be a difficult case to make.
The downlisting from endangered to threatened is not mere wordplay, it opens the door toward a greater assault on manatees that count humans as their only prey - and best protectors.
