European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - February 01, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                \ slow moving heavy eating manatees Are threatened by speeding boats and a shrinking food Supply. Gentle Manatee struggling for survival by Richard Cole the associated Pressa Century from now lonely sailors May still Tell stories of sultry Caribbean mermaids but conservationists fear the gentle manatees that inspired the myth will have vanished. The Friendly floating 10-foot-Long sea cows Are one of the world s most endangered sea mammals. Their sluggish swimming Pace makes them vulnerable to Fae High powered boats that Speed across Florida Waterways. But the greatest threat to their survival is a dwindling food Supply the coastal sea grass that s rapidly disappearing because of development an siltation. The dam May burst sometime in the near future warns Jay Gorzelany of Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota. Eventually you re going to reach a critical level where there s just not enough room for manatees and humans to coexist and you May have a massive Manatee  the West Indian manatees and their old world relative the dugong Are unique. They Are the Only vegetarian sea mammals. Their closest relative is a land animal the elephant like Many whales and dolphins they apparently abandoned me land for the Ocean millions of years ago. Manatees sometimes nurse their Young upright in the water and with their Forward looking eyes can be mistaken for a human being at a distance. Historians believe Early explorers to the new world did just tuesday february 1, 1994 that creating the Merlr raid myth. The precise number of West Indian manatees is unknown. Florida has the majority with More than 1,800 counted in an Aerial Ceffus last year. Small colonies exist on some Caribbean islands and in Central and South America but none Are believed to exceed 100 or so. If the manatees can t be saved in Florida with our ample economic resources and our fairly educated populace then i Don t think it will be done in developing countries says Kipp Frohlich protected species endangered manatees some facts and figures on West Indian manatees an estimated 1,800to 2,000 manatees survive in the United states. Most live in Florida although summer migrations take them As far As the Carolinas and Alabama. Small colonies exist along the Central american and South american coast and some Caribbean islands. Manatees eat 10 percent of their body weight each Day. They will eat most water patents but their principal diet is sea grass which is vanishing because of development and siltation. From 1976 through june 1993, biologists recorded 2,112 Manatee deaths in Florida. Of that number 527 were killed by boats 151 by other human activities and 683 by undetermined causes. The rest were from natural causes. The associated press administrator for Florida s department of environmental Protection. The state and Federal government have taken some Basic conservation Steps. Boat speeds Are increasingly regulated in Manatee areas. Deaths caused by humans have dropped somewhat Over the last five years this summer the . Fish and wildlife service is opening staging area at the Kennedy space Center to gradually release some of 50 captive manatees. The soft release pens were developed because manatees freed directly into the wild have died almost immediately says Robert Turner the Agency s Manatee recovery coordinator Breeding manatees is not the problem. New data from Bruce Ackerman of the state s Florida Marine research Institute shows female manatees May have calves earlier and More frequently than once thought. He says the Short term Manatee count seems to be rising because of increased Manatee births and decreased deaths caused by humans. But the continuing loss of habitat has not Ben resolved. Adult manatees eat 100 to 200 pounds of Green plants a Day. They even relish the nuisance v plants that clog some Florida Waterways. But the Staple of their diet is sea grass which is disappearing rapidly. Tampa Bay has already lost 65 percenter 75 percent of its sea grasses says Turner. Even Inland development contributes the Runoff that comes Down the River reduces the Light in the water which reduces the sea  the sea grasses will recover if water Quality improves but the Long Range trends Are not Good he says. To your health new test aids fight against Lyme disease by the associated press a new test can determine if a patient has an Active infection of Lyme disease which until now has resisted accurate diagnosis according to a report published last week. Unknow doctors could not easily determine whether joint inflammation was caused by Lyme bacteria or by the body s immune response. If a patient has Lyme causing bacteria doctors can prescribe with More Confidence massive doses of antibiotics say researchers from the Mayo clinic Tufts University and the new England medical Center in Massachusetts. This test offers doctors a powerful new diagnostic tool for patients whose Lyme arthritis has gone untreated or has failed to respond to Standard Antibiotic therapy said or. David Persing of Mayo s molecular microbiology Laboratory where the test was developed. If caught Early most cases can be cleared up with Oral antibiotics. But in 60 percent of untreated cases victims develop chronic joint pain and vision and heart problems that can last for years. An aggressive regimen to treat the bacteria can Cost up to $17,000 a month. Conventional techniques for testing for Lyme disease which Cost about $150, try to grow the not a researcher examines a Deer tick in his lab. Lyme bacteria from joint fluid. But they Are unreliable and As a result doctors could not be certain whether antibiotics had wiped out an infection. The Mayo test which Persing said costs about $200, uses a technique that determines whether any Dan or genetic material from Lyme bacteria is present in joint fluid normally taken from a patient s knee according to the researchers report in a recent new England journal of Medicine. Or. Allen Steere the Tufts University professor of Medicine who first identified the disease in 1975, wrote last year that three fourths of the patients referred to his Lyme disease clinic at new England medical Center we re misdiagnosed and had been Given unnecessary antibiotics. Steere co authored the study. About 10,000 cases of Lyme carried to humans by Deer ticks Are reported to the . Centers for disease control and prevention every year. Physicians in Europe still unfamiliar with the disease Are just now learning to recognize it. The stars and stripes 17