The governor's stand was courageous and your outpouring of support gave him the encouragement he needed. In fact, the FWC reported that the governor's office received over 28,000 messages on manatees and the majority of them were in favor of keeping manatees designated as Endangered.

That's a lot of messages you all sent or put out the word on and many others sent messages too. Here's what's coming up.

Manatees have a new window of opportunity and, with your help we can join together to tackle some of these goals vital to their protection in the upcoming year:

• Obtain the revision of Florida's flawed imperiled species classification system so manatees and all of the state's imperiled species can be fairly reviewed, classified properly, and receive the protections they need.
• Ensure that the manatee management plan, which the Commission approved today, is fully funded and implemented.
• Increase efforts to conserve natural warm water springs and develop plans to prevent catastrophic manatee die-offs should power plants go offline.
• Fight for more law enforcement positions so Florida's waterways will be safer for manatees and people.
• Expand our role in manatee rescue and rehabilitation efforts and prevent needless deaths of sick and injured manatees.

Also we suggest you take a couple of minutes to thank Governor Charlie Crist and the FWC Commission for their strong support of manatees and I most certainly agree:

Thanks so very much and Happy Holidays,
Helen Spivey
Manatee Issue Chair for the Florida Chapter of Sierra Club