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In Florida, Animal Deaths Spark Fears of Ecosystem Collapse

The deaths of manatees, pelicans and bottlenose dolphins in Florida's Indian River estuary have sparked fears that the estuary's prized ecosystem may be collapsing.

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Twenty brown pelicans now call Texas home after getting "oiled" in the BP spill off Louisiana's coast
Credit: Spencer Selvidge

Michael Wines of The New York Times reports that the deaths of manatees, pelicans and bottlenose dolphins in Florida's Indian River estuary have sparked fears that the estuary's ecosystem, one of the most diverse and abundant in the nation, may be collapsing. Though a cause has not been determined, pollution is the likely culprit. "We may have reached a tipping point," Troy Rice, who directs the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, told the Times.

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