Deaths of Florida’s starving manatees surge amid winter chill

Chilly temperatures are rekindling a manatee die-off in Central Florida’s Indian River.

“Winter is here,” said Martine de Wit, a state veterinarian and scientist.

Along a Brevard County piece of the Indian River on Thursday, which turned warmer and sunny, a snapshot of the ominous, protracted plight of manatees came into vivid focus.

A pair of manatee calves lingered side by side nearly motionlessly in sun-pierced…