VALRICO, Fla. — A catastrophic die-off of manatees has continued this winter, despite the intervention of state and federal wildlife agencies.

Officials reported recovering 85 manatees last month alone on Florida’s Atlantic coast, and on Friday, wildlife officers recovered 16 manatees, most in Brevard County. On top of all that, last year, a record breaking 1,100 died in the Indian River Lagoon area. Most deaths were attributed to starvation.

Now, there’s a Tampa Bay teen who has started a petition to save the manatees from starvation due to a bill being considered by lawmakers that would allow developers to destroy seagrass.

Joey Gillespie, Jr. has been passionate about marine life for as long as he can remember. “Ever since I was 3 years old, and I saw my first ever shark on Shark Week, I instantly felt a connection between myself, and the world beneath the waves,” Gillespie said.

He hopes to become a marine biologist one day, and right now, he’s doing everything he can to save the sea’s most vulnerable creatures.

“Joey has always been an advocate for marine life since he was about 3. He has this oath to never eat seafood, ever,” said Ariel Raymond, Joey's mom.

And while you won’t find a filet of fish on Gillespie’s plate, you will find him spending countless hours researching, studying, and advocating.  He even launched a petition, “Keep Manatees Fed, Put House Bill 349 to Bed,” to try to put a stop to the bill that would allow developers to relocate seagrass, which is manatees’ primary food source.

“The fact that they believe, 'Oh since they're protected and seagrass is protected, we can do this,' it's astonishing how no one has spoken up before about this,” Gillespie said.

Joey’s sister, Taylor Gillespie, a freshman in high school, is also helping with the petition.  “We need 1,500 (signatures), so we can show it to the governor, so they can try and stop this bill from passing,” Taylor said.

The petition is just one of Joey’s endeavors. He launched a Facebook page, One Voice Makes a Difference, to help him spread the word about all the issues he’s passionate about, including autism, because Joey himself has high-functioning Asperger's syndrome. But despite any communication challenges he may face, he pushes through and fights to be the voice for those who can’t speak.

“If people see this as meaningless, or another kid doing something pointless, then let me ask you something, if you were a manatee and you saw this going on in your life, wouldn't you want people to help you as well? Or would you rather sit there and let the people dig up your precious habitat, and go extinct?” Gillespie asked.

Raymond said there have been some naysayers who think there’s some sort of political motivation behind the petition, but she wants to make it clear, that is not the case. She says her son just wants to do his part to help the manatees.