LONDON (Reuter) - American engineers have developed manatee detectors to save the endangered aquatic mammals from being killed in the locks and gates of Florida's canals and waterways.
New Scientist magazine said Thursday that engineers from Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, Fla. designed two types of detectors which will halt the moving gates and allow the animals to pass unharmed.
"The animals are more at risk than you would think," Andy Clark, head of the project told the magazine. "When manatees hear the rumble of the gate opening, they think the salad bar is about to open."
Sixteen manatees were killed by closing gates in Florida in 1994. The state at the southeastern tip of America is their main habitat, but fewer than 3,000 of the endangered species live in Florida waterways.
Clark explained that the two types of sensors, for both vertical and swinging lock gates, are attached to the gates and send signals that differentiate between sharp shocks caused by debris in the water and softer moving objects such as the manatees.