Poor water quality and diminishing seagrass could be the reason Florida's manatees are dying at an alarming rate. An $8 million dollar budget appropriation for manatee habitat restoration to help the state’s dying manatee population is receiving scrutiny from a government watchdog group. But even Florida TaxWatch is going soft on Florida’s beloved sea cows, a keystone of Florida wildlife. In the group’s annual budget turkey report, which calls out budget appropriations that are not “core functions of government” and subject to “formal, competitive selection processes,” the group acknowledged “Florida’s manatees are in crisis.” More than 700 manatees have died so far this year. That rate is almost three times the five-year average, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conversation Commission (FWC).