Mar 23, 2009 8:34 am US/Eastern
Power Company To Heat Things Up For Manatees
Port St. John (CBS4) ―
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A Manatee swimming in Blue Springs State Park, Florida.
AP
Florida Power & Light is called upon to keep Florida homes warm on those few chilly days we get each winter. Now, it's getting another call, to keep the watery home of Florida Manatees warm when the mercury falls.
Manatees come to Florida waters in winter to take advantage of warmer temperatures, but much of the time it's still too cool for the warm-blooded aquatic mammals. Manatees have been trained to flock to the outfalls of power plant cooling systems, where the water is up to 13 degrees warmer than normal.
That's the case on the Indian River, where a number of plans discharge manatee-friendly warmer water. Bit now, one of those plants will be shut down temporarily. FPL will convert at 43-year-old plant in St. John into a $1 billion natural gas plant. It's scheduled to go online in 2013, but in the meantime its warm water will be halted at times.
That's why Florida Power & Light Co. is installing an electric heating system that will pump out warm water just to keep them toasty at the place where cooling system water is sent into the Indian River at a St. John power plant.
When it gets cold, FPL can send out waves of specially heated waters so the manatees are not endangered.
On the coldest winter days, more than 600 manatees huddle at plants along the Indian River. Without their warmth, temperature can drop into the 50s in the winter, weakening manatees' immune systems.
While this is a temporary solution, Florida wildlife officials are trying to come up with other ways to warm manatees as power companies consider power plants which don't require the discharge of warm water.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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