Yet despite the gains, manatees sti

Yet despite the gains, manatees still face grave threats. Three-quarters of Florida's 22 million people live along the coast, many in prime manatee habitat,where the strain of human presence has degraded the state's springs, waterways, and wetlands. In Indian River Lagoon, for example, an important manatee habitat along Florida's densely populated east coast,decades of human waste, sediment from real estate development,and fertilizers from lawns and farms have clouded the water.That has killed seagrass, manatees'main food source there.More than a thousand manatees have died in the lagoon during the past two years. As the death toll has risen,facilities that rescue ailing manatees with the hope of returning them to the wild have been overwhelmed by an influx of new patients.