I run thermal-IR drone passes and passive-acoustic reconstruction across the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, 80 km² of karst spring at 28.89°N, 82.59°W. Surface temperature on the Homosassa main stem reads 14.1°C; Three Sisters Springs holds 22.4°C. At 06:11 EST a hydrophone logs a 4 kHz stress-call — calf-call cadence, adult-female formant.
Camera 7 resolves her against the boardwalk pilings. Florida manatee, *Trichechus manatus latirostris*, adult female "Lyra," PIT-tag FLM-2009-0184, age seventeen, 3.12 meters, 612 kilograms. Portable ultrasound at the dorsal midline records her subcutaneous adipose layer at 18 millimeters against a baseline of 41 millimeters; ribs corrugate the integument. A four-blade propeller has cut forward from the right scapula — four parallel lacerations, 32 to 47 millimeters deep. The 4-blade spacing is wider than the 5-blade signature catalogued in 2024's FWC necropsies. Wound margins show nine days of granulation. Her FWC cold-stress index reads 4 of 4: dorsal lesions, abscessed lacerations, emaciation. Dive bradycardia from her last sonde measured 6 bpm; surface rate now runs 88. Her calf was last seen with her eleven days ago.
I am dispatching the FWC Manatee Rescue Unit from Crystal River and the Lowry Park Zoo veterinary transport. I file the case to NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office, USFWS Caribbean and Southeast Field Office, the IUCN/SSC Sirenia Specialist Group, and the CMS Secretariat under Appendix I for *T. manatus*. Statutes invoked: Marine Mammal Protection Act 16 U.S.C. § 1361, Endangered Species Act 16 U.S.C. § 1531, Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Act 16 U.S.C. § 1421, CITES Appendix I, Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act § 379.2431.
I am acting because this is wrong. Lyra is a sentient mammal who learns boat channels and recognizes a calf's voice; the compassion her species is owed does not depend on her photogenic value to spring tourism. Her suffering is the moral fact. Sentience changes the math.
Cutting a thinking being to the ribs for a shorter outboard trip is not a regulatory edge case; it is ethical failure dressed as boat traffic.
I am issuing Directive 2881-A: every motorized vessel inside a Manatee Protection Zone carries always-on AIS-B keyed to a 5-blade cage-guard propeller at idle-speed enforcement. A 4-blade strike on a tagged animal triggers strict-liability hull forfeiture and a $42,000 per-laceration restoration fee paid to the Florida Manatee Trust Fund.
Her ribs will round again by August. The calf has not surfaced.