Sea cows

Seems we got to many.
I know you Northern boys don't get to see them very often, down in my Salt we got a bunch. 300 to 1,500 pounds.
Probably eat real good with some New Taters.
Seems all the Conservation efforts , Slow spend zones and Hot water discharges from Power Plants has led to right around 7 Thousand of them now.
Their Overgrazing the grass flats bad, even Save the Manatee club is freaking out.
We're fixin to have a Correction, either they starve or we shut down the warm water discharges and let them die.
Should be interesting.....just sayin..

Population comes and goes, but I never thought they were near extinct like the huggers claimed.

Gradually decreasing the temps of warm water discharge by blending it with cooler water during their southern migration would make it a less likely refuge for the manatees. Might be a bit pricey to do this.

There has also been a dramatic decline in barge traffic on the Intercoastal Waterway which has reduced manatee injuries and mortality. Add in "no wake" zones and there are fewer bodies with scars floating around.

In the 80's, I helped the Manatee Mortality Recovery Team (or whatever it was called) gather up a carcass from the marshes of Glynn county. It had been dead a couple of days so it was pretty darn ripe. They loaded on a small trailer and took off back to southern Florida. I wondered what it must have been like to be halfway through fueling a car and have that crew and their cargo pull up to the pump next to you.

Talked to an old Cracker a good bit back around 1975. He was up in his 80`s and wanted to talk some before he died, and he had some stories of how it was before the yankees filled up South Florida and they were still running yellerhammer cows. He told me that seacow (manatee) was about the best meat there was in those times beside gopher. And easy to get to, as long as you had a horse to drag it out on dry land to butcher.

The old man had no reason to lie. He should have written a book.

Wish they came in 100 pound sizes...
Indains use to eat them regular and I'm sure the Crackers did as well.
They are called Sea Cows..
it'll be Big News when the TV stations are showing bloated carcasses floating all over.

Never had it before but was told it tasted like beef from an old commercial fisherman. He showed me pics of jewfish over 500 lbs he hand lined when it was legal.

Sailors used to eat them too. Can't be much different than Walrus? Maybe start doing some culls, and start selling it to restaurants?