Carson Zorn
•7/24/2026
The Trump administration continued its rollbacks on Endangered Species Act protections on July 17 by nixing a blanket that provided automatic protections for plants and animals listed as "threatened."
INTERACTIVE: Click here to see Florida's latest manatee mortality numbers
According to the Associated Press , threatened species will now require individualized protection plans once they are added to the threatened species list, instead of receiving automatic protection.
The recent decision to get rid of "Blanket 4(d) Rule" has prompted concerns and questions as to the effects on threatened species, including the Florida manatee.
The removal of blanket protection creates a potentially longer process for threatened species to receive protections. The longer process could allow for companies to seek oil and gas drilling exemptions where those species live, AP reports.
Similar changes were made during President Donald Trump's first term, but were reversed during former President Joe Biden's time in office.
Opponents of the rollbacks have said the changes will make it harder to protect and save endangered species awaiting federal protection, such as the monarch butterfly. The Endangered Species Act is credited with bringing back animals from the brink of extinction, including the bald eagle, AP reports.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum claimed that the Endangered Species Act of 1973 had been "used for too long to stop almost any new project in America, driving up costs for families, weakening our competitiveness, and undermining our national security."
In addition to removing blanket protections, a second change will require federal officials to analyze economic impacts when designating critical habitat for a protected species, AP reports.
Elizabeth Neville, director of environmental law and policy for Save the Manatee Club, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Florida, spoke to Oceanographic Magazine and broke down how that could impact Florida manatees, calling the change troubling, if not illegal.
"It makes critical habitat really vulnerable to economic considerations, when the statute requires the best available science," Neville said. "It's going to put a weight on the scale in favor of economic interests over conservation."
The revised rules would mean that if the economic costs of designating an area as a critical habitat outweigh the conservation benefits, agencies will be required to exclude that area from the designation, the magazine reports.
Neville said that for manatees, that could mean the risk of losing the warm-water refuges and habitat that the species requires for survival. Neville warned that the loss of those habitats could have a serious long-term cost, both ecological and economic.
"Keystone species like manatees provide incredible ecosystem services," Neville said. "And it's really amazing the millions and millions of tourism dollars that manatees alone bring into the state."
"If you're exempting certain industries that cause habitat destruction, in many instances you'll be exempting the main threat to those species," said Noah Greenwald with the environmental group Center for Biological Diversity.
Those concerned for Florida's wildlife, such as manatees, also point to the Trump administration's decision earlier this year to exempt the oil and gas industry in the Gulf from the requirements of the ESA, saying it could endanger critical wildlife.
The main driver of species loss is land and sea change as a result of urban development, agricultural expansion and deforestation, according to the UN Environment Programme. Some fear that the loss of habitat is what awaits manatees following the new rules.
In the fallout of the changes to the ESA, many on social media are speculating that the new rollbacks could make it legal to hunt and kill manatees in Florida.
The revision of the blanket rule changes and narrows the definition of "harm" to a species. The change could allow for development on critical wildlife habitats if the economic benefits outweigh the risk, as long as the animals are not immediately killed or injured.
However, despite the change to the definition of "harm," Trump's rollbacks on the ESA do not make it legal to hunt and kill manatees. Manatees are still protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and other Florida Statutes.
Additionally, the changes only apply to species newly labeled "threatened." Manatees are already listed as "threatened."
While many concerns remain about the safety of the manatee population due to habitat loss, there is no threat of legal hunting or killing of manatees.
