Is There An Opportunistic Approach To The Case Study Of Manatees?

Manatees are threatened by various human activities such as boats and fishing. According to statistics, manatees faced countless number of boat collisions all year round. Because of these collisions, some of the manatees have scars on their bodies and sometimes lead to death. Researchers were speculating if manatees respond to the boats that were coming towards them. To come up with a solution to prevent the increasing number of collisions, researchers have conducted a case study in which they see whether or not if the manatees respond to vessels. In order to conduct this study, the researchers selected the manatees by looking at their distinctive features that would allow observations to be easier. They did not approach manatees that were with young calves. The researchers had two different approaches that are known as opportunistic and experimental. The opportunistic approach was where individuals who happened to pass by the view of the video camera when the manatees were present in the frame. The experimental approach was where the researchers controlled the vessel by

For example, the time period of this case study was relatively short: 22-day period from May 13-26, 1999 and April 29, 2000 – June 10, 2000. If the case study was conducted on a longer time period, there would be more sufficient amount of data. More data would give more solidified conclusions about the general population of manatees. Since it was only done in one area in Florida, it’s hard to make a general statement about the whole population of manatees. If the case study had it done in multiple areas in the world, the more evidence there would be about manatees in general. The weather conditions during the period of the case study could have also caused some discrepancies in the results. There were a total of 317 video recordings, but because of the numerous video recordings that didn’t clearly show the manatees, they became