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An increase in ecotourism has led to greater
boat traffic, which kills
or injures
a large number of manatees. Today, their
numbers are dwindling. The
manatees
will always be in danger of local extinction
until boat traffic through
this
important habitat decreases.
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| Habitat |
The canals and coastal waterways along the
northern Caribbean Coast of
Costa
Rica are home to a small population of West
Indian Manatees (Trichechus
manatus).
They flourished in this area until about
1974, when several changes
in their habitat caused a drastic reduction
in the population. First,
the
dredging and building of a national series
of canals which connect
Limón
and Barra
del Colorado.
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| Endangered
Species |
Ironically, manatees are being threatened by
conservation designed to
save
a single species: the green turtle. Although
manatees have returned to
the
area, they are in between a steadily
expanding agricultural frontier to
the
west (banana plantations), and green turtle
ecotourism from the east.
Manatees
are caught in the middle.
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| Education |
Literature
&
eBooks
Children's Classic Literature
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Costa Rica's Manatees
A truly cute-looking Costa Rican mammal is the
manatee, which looks
like
a walrus except that it doesn't have any tusks. This
chubby swimmer
once
inhabited several waterways in Costa Rica and in
many areas of the
American
continent. However, it was hunted almost to
extinction because of its
tender
meat and its hide. Today, it can only be found near
the South of the
United
States and in a few places of Central America.
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| Trichechus
manatus |
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Recently claimed to be extinct in Costa Rica, a
population of manatees
has
been located in the rivers and lagoons adjacent to
the world famous
green
turtle nesting beach at Tortuguero National
Park.
Manatees are also being protected at the Gandoca Manzanillo
Wildlife Refuge.
The rediscovery of a manatee population is very
significant, because it
shows
the importance of this particular location as a
preferred habitat.
Fast motor boats full of tourists heading to
the
beaches of Tortuguero (to
see the turtles) race through the lagoons, rivers
and canals from Moin
to
Tortuguero and sometimes collide with slow
moving manatees.
More importantly,
they scare manatees away and chase them to the
backwaters, where
motorized
boats do not go. Pesticides used on banana
plantations kill fish and
may
be causing aquatic changes, especially in these
shallow backwater areas.
Manatees are another potential ecotourism
attraction
that
can produce much needed revenue and jobs for the
community. Because
manatees
rely on the lagoons and canals behind the beach,
this important habitat
must
be protected from continued development of banana
plantations and road
construction. §
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