The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has named a panel of three experts from outside the agency to review a biological status report regarding manatees.

The FWC's scientists will prepare the report in response to a petition to reclassify manatees from endangered to another protected species status. If FWC scientists determine manatees no longer meet the criteria for listing as an endangered species, and the outside experts agree, manatees' status could change next year.

Change in the species' status will not necessarily change the measures the state takes to protect it, however, since those measures are defined in a management plan, which is based on the species' needs rather than its classification.

The panel will consist of University of Massachusetts professor Solange Brault, University of Washington and Scripps Institution professor Doug Demaster, and James Cook University (of Australia) professor Helene Marsh.

All three panelists are marine mammal experts.