After hundreds of beloved manatees starved in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon, a team of Tampa Bay Times reporters set out to trace the unprecedented die-off to its roots.
They wanted to know: If the Lagoon — one of the nation’s most vibrant waterways — could nearly collapse, what did it signal about the rest of Florida?
Zachary T. Sampson, Shreya Vuttaluru and Bethany Barnes revealed that a pollution crisis had exploded across the state, spoiling fragile waterways from the Panhandle to Miami. But it took more than a year — and forging new ground by poring over millions of rows of data — to get there.
No one had ever examined pollution in Florida’s waterways with such breadth and depth.
Reporters analyzed chemical sampling results from thousands of rivers, lakes and bays using statistical methods vetted by more than a dozen scientists to examine whether water quality showed improvement over the past 25 years. They found the state failed to control pollutants for decades, allowing the Lagoon and hundreds of waterways to become dangerously contaminated. Their analysis revealed alarming levels of chemicals in nearly 1 in 4 waterways.
Sampson, Vuttaluru and Barnes detailed the sources of pollution. Sifting through state reports, they tallied that an estimated 100 million pounds of nitrogen and 4.5 million pounds of phosphorus could mar Florida’s already contaminated waters — every single year. Using data from satellite imagery, they found that over the past four decades nearly 2 million acres of natural land was transformed into polluting farms, roads, strip malls and subdivisions.
The team also exposed the harrowing consequences of the contamination. Increased pollution leaves waterways more susceptible to devastating algal blooms, which can wipe out precious seagrass beds.
The reporters conducted a first-of-its-kind analysis showing that more than 89,000 acres of seagrass died around the state, erasing critical habitat for countless species and a main food source for manatees. In the Lagoon, tens of thousands of acres disappeared — or nearly all the seagrass manatees could have eaten.
The fallout was staggering.
In 2021 alone, more than 1,000 manatees died in Florida — by far the deadliest year on record for the animals. Many of them starved in the Indian River Lagoon.
To get an unfiltered view into Florida’s response, reporters read more than 7,000 emails from state scientists written around the time of the die-off. They obtained photos taken by researchers that provided a rare, never-before-seen window into pollution’s toll, evidenced through the emaciated bodies of manatees scattered along shorelines.
Ultimately, the team interviewed over 100 scientists, politicians, lawyers and environmentalists about the causes and consequences of water pollution. They submitted more than 140 public records requests to state, regional and federal agencies, fighting for months and repeatedly turning to lawyers to free documents from Florida’s environmental and agricultural departments.
Their dogged work will continue throughout the year.
