Overview

"Why is the manatee just as imperiled today as it was 40 years ago? Loveable or loathed? Poster child for conservation efforts or impediment to development? Nuisance or in need of protection? For the past two decades, the quiet manatee has been a flash point of frequent environmental debates. Included on the very first endangered species list issued in 1967, the docile creatures have stirred curiosity and passions for more than a hundred years. They are Florida's most famous endangered species, as well as its most controversial. Manatees appear on hundreds of license plates, attract hordes of tourists, and expose the uneasy relationships between science and the law and between freedom and responsibility like no other animal. As passions have flared and resentments have grown, the battle over manatee protection has evolved into a war, and no reporter has followed the story more closely than Craig Pittman. He's flown with scientists trying to count manatees from overhead. He's been on the water with the leader of the biggest pro-boater group. He's observed biologists dissecting the animals and politicians discussing their fate. """"Manatee Insanity"""" provides the first in-depth history of the attempts to provide legal protection for the manatee. Along the way, Pittman takes a close look at the major and minor players in the dispute, from Jacques-Yves Cousteau to Jeb Bush, from Jimmy Buffett to O. J. Simpson, from a popular children's book author to a federal lawman who dressed in a gorilla suit for the ultimate undercover assignment."

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9780813034621

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Reviews

"""Manatee Insanity lives up to its name. . . . A fascinating look beyond the headlines.""--Bay Soundings ""An important book. . . . Enjoyable to read. . . . Much more than a description of the struggle over the survival of the manatee. It is a depiction of a much larger struggle--one for the very soul of the place we call Florida.""--H-Net ""Superbly researched, highly readable, and thought-provoking.""--Environmental History ""A wonderfully written book about a wide range of issues affecting the Florida manatee.""--Choice ""A thorough, enjoyable, and moving study of the myriad players involved in the fate of Florida's gentle manatees.""--Florida Historical Quarterly ""Pittman . . . takes on powerboat owners, policy makers and environmentalists to tell the sea cow's story.""--SEJournal"

Manatee Insanity lives up to its name. . . . A fascinating look beyond the headlines. --Bay Soundings An important book. . . . Enjoyable to read. . . . Much more than a description of the struggle over the survival of the manatee. It is a depiction of a much larger struggle--one for the very soul of the place we call Florida. --H-Net Superbly researched, highly readable, and thought-provoking. --Environmental History A wonderfully written book about a wide range of issues affecting the Florida manatee. --Choice A thorough, enjoyable, and moving study of the myriad players involved in the fate of Florida's gentle manatees. --Florida Historical Quarterly Pittman . . . takes on powerboat owners, policy makers and environmentalists to tell the sea cow's story. --SEJournal

Author Information

Craig Pittman, native Floridian, is an award-winning journalist for the state's largest paper, the St. Petersburg Times. He is also the coauthor of Paving Paradise: Florida's Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss.

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