Existing federal laws to safeguard manatees won't provide adequate protection for the species now that Florida is downlisting the mammal from endangered to threatened, environmentalists contend.

Federal officials say the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act are in effect and will remain the same despite the state's change in listing.

"There will be no change in federal protection at all," said Dave Hankla, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Jacksonville office.

State and local advocates of the manatee say those federal laws have been of little help to the manatee in the past.

"The federal laws are only as good as the enforcement," said Andrew McElwaine, executive director of The Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Because of lack of staffing, funding or political will, the enforcement has been weak, he contends.

"It's financial as well as the will of upper management to stand by the laws on the books," he said.

That is why a coalition of environmental groups sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2000, said Pat Rose, government relations director of the Save the Manatee Club of Maitland in Central Florida.

The federal government wasn't enforcing the manatee protection laws, Rose said.

Rose testified before the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in West Palm Beach last week, before the governor-appointed board voted unanimously to downlist the manatee to threatened.

In Florida, imperiled species are classified into three categories: endangered, threatened and species of special concern. To be endangered is to be at the highest risk of extinction.

Florida law calls for endangered and threatened species to have management plans that dictate the rules of human behavior in the creatures' habitat. The rules are intended to be more severe for the highest level of threat, endangered animals, than for the lowest level, the species of special concern.

But specific rules are set up in management plans. For the newly classified "threatened manatee," management plans are expected to take about a year.

Boat docks and speed zones would be affected by the manatee's new management plan.

Limiting the number of boat docks impedes waterfront development and limiting boat speeds impedes the fishing industry's quick access to fishing spots.

State and federal officials maintain that the downlisting of the manatee doesn't mean that management plans will provide less protection than currently exists.

"We are just going to have to see how it plays out," said Hankla of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, who also attended the meeting when the manatee was downlisted. "I believe the state will write a very strong management plan. The commission seemed to be supportive of that."

Rose believes otherwise.

"They are not saying, "Roll back protection now,'" Rose said before the downlisting vote. "But by golly after they get the manatee downlisted, they will be back there beating the door down to have those protections rolled back."

Ted Forsgen, executive director of the Coastal Conservation Commission of Florida, which represents 11,000 Florida anglers, said the organization's members petitioned for a review of the status of the manatee because they wanted the truth out.

"We knew from our analysis that the manatee did not fit in the endangered species category," he said.

The beloved manatee is Florida's official marine mammal. It is a warm-blooded creature that survives on vegetation such as sea grass and cannot live in water colder than 66 degrees. Schoolchildren, tourists and residents alike are sea cow aficionados. The manatee specialty license tag has been a top seller in Florida for years.

The average adult manatee is 9.8 feet long and weighs between 800 and 1,200 pounds. There are an estimated 3,300 manatees in Florida today, with about 1,400 of them in Southwest Florida.

Supporters of the downlisting say there were 1,200 manatees 25 years ago and the increase in the numbers proves the basis for the downlisting.

Rose agrees the manatees have made some recovery in recent years, but the forces against the lumbering animals' survival are mounting. He pleaded with Fish and Wildlife commissioners not to downlist the manatee, saying it will send the wrong message to the Legislature and public that the manatee no longer needs protection.

Rose maintains the real reason for the downlisting has more to do with the political forces for development and marine and fishing industry interests than a reduction in the perils faced by the manatee.

"The home builders, the marine industry, dock builders and pretty wealthy fishermen all got united," he said.

Rose has fostered some uniting of his own on behalf of the manatees. In 2000, his organization and 18 other environmental groups were the ones that filed suit against a federal agency for failure to follow the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Both acts require permits before activities can occur in the animals' habitat as well as management plans that address ways to prevent loss of life, such as slow speed zones and permit reviews for dock building.

Rose, an aquatic biologist who used to work for the state's environmental regulation agency, said he is familiar with agencies that don't follow the law. He quit his state job years ago in frustration over the lack of enforcement of policies.

"By federal law, when reviewing development permits, the (U.S. Army) Corps and the (U.S. Fish and Wildlife) Service are not allowed to permit activity that would cause more than a negligible impact on the population (of manatees) -- called an incidental taking," Rose said.

He said that, with watercraft collisions taking the lives of many manatees, the threshold for greater than incidental takings has been met.

Last year, 396 manatees died in Florida, with 80 of those deaths caused by collisions with watercraft.

The Fish and Wildlife Service's review of the manatee says that more than 1,000 living manatees are "scarred from boat injuries, and that 97 percent have scar patterns from multiple boat strikes."

Many of the manatees are "severely mutilated," the report said.

At least two carcasses examined after death had "evidence of more than 50 past collisions with watercraft."

Manatee deaths in Southwest Florida have been greater than elsewhere in the state. Ten manatees died in Lee County from collisions with boats in the first five months of 2006.

And the number of vessels in Southwest Florida waters continues to increase at more than 20 percent in five years.

In Collier County, there were 24,072 registered vessels in 2005, up 24.4 percent from 2000. In Lee County, there were 50,675 registered vessels, up 20 percent from 2000. Lee County now has the fourth greatest number of registered vessels among Florida counties, behind Pinellas, Broward and Miami-Dade.

The Army Corps had agreed to do a cumulative impact assessment to gauge the effect of the additional vessels and docks on the manatee. However, Rose said there has been no such assessment done. And now rather than meet the federal laws, lobbyists for the industries are trying to change the laws.

Hankla of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the organization has had a difficult time coming up with a method of determining the cumulative effect of permitted activity on the manatee.

"It's not simply a matter of saying, 'If you issue this number of permits at this location, you'll have this kind of impact on manatees.' The law says we are supposed to look at the cumulative effect, but what are the most sensitive aspects that have an impact on manatees? And just because you do a scientific study, doesn't mean you are going to get the answer."

While the report on the status of the manatee pointed out that manatees in Southwest Florida and the Upper St. Johns River region remain endangered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service supported Florida Fish and Wildlife's recommendation to downlist the manatee.

"We were satisfied that they had proper findings based on state procedures," Hankla said.