Alumna Celeshia Guy Galves’ recent publication highlights the increasing mortality of manatees in Belize from boat strikes. Belize is a stronghold of the Antillean manatee population, but increasing boat traffic poses a growing threat to this endangered relative of the Florida manatee. The new study, published June 1 in Endangered Species Research, used 25 years of data on manatee strandings (dead or injured animals), six aerial surveys of the manatee population, and two decades of boat registration data to quantify the impacts of increasing boat traffic on the manatee population. First author Celeshia Guy Galves, now at the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute in Belize, led the study as a graduate student in the Coastal Science and Policy Program at UC Santa Cruz. Read more in Newsweek here.
