The Chicago Zoological Society (CZS) continues to expand its efforts to conserve endangered species. The Antillean manatee is an endangered species found throughout the Caribbean and along the Atlantic coastal waters from Mexico to Brazil. Some of the major threats affecting the species include illegal hunting, habitat destruction, water pollution, and uncontrolled tourism along coastal areas. In order to help conserve and better understand the species, 16 people from research institutions, environmental agencies, and local governments from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama met in Tortuguero, Costa Rica in April 2007, to create a regional manatee management plan for Southern Mesoamerica. This is the first effort initiated by local organizations to conserve manatees at a regional level, although the Environmental Program of the United Nations (UNEP) has also developed a management plan for the 21 countries in which manatees are found.  The meeting was mainly funded by the Critical Partnership Ecosystem.

Figure 1.  First day of the manatee meeting in Tortuguero, Costa Rica. Representatives from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama are giving the opening remarks.

      CZS supported development of the regional plan for Southern Mesoamerica by supporting my participation in the meeting.  I was one of the authors of the 2007 UNEP plan, and was invited to present and participate at the meeting. Participants were very involved and excited about the development of a regional manatee plan. A draft plan was developed after three days of discussions, including goals and research activities for the three countries. The document is currently under review and it is expected to be available to the public in the spring 2008.
      After the meeting, several of us traveled to Panama to test equipment brought from the United States to study manatees in Southern Mesoamerica. The equipment included a side-scan sonar, a new technology that is being developed to study manatees inhabiting dark waters. The trip to Panama also involved giving talks and having discussions of ideas for future manatee research projects including radio tagging, aerial surveys, and genetic studies.