St. Petersburg, Florida - Some 300 to 350 manatees are munching on donated lettuce every day in an experimental feeding program that officials in Florida are calling a success.

So far, the round nosed cows of the sea have chowed down on more than 25 tons of donated romaine lettuce, officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said at a virtual news conference on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

Florida's manatees died off in record numbers last year, mostly due to a lack of food.

That's because pollution and huge algae blooms have significantly stunted the large sea mammal's favorite snack: seagrass.

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"You can’t just go out and plant a bunch of seagrass," said Tom Reinert, FWC south regional director and spokesperson for the state-federal effort to save manatees. Long term efforts to help the large sea mammals revolve around restoring seagrass beds, but in the short term the manatees need a seagrass substitute. That's where lettuce comes in.

And there is a reason to have some hope, since the sea cows clearly have a taste for the substitute meals.

The feeding program at a Florida power plant on the east coast appears successful. "It gives us the greatest exposure to the greatest number of animals," Ron Mezich of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Wednesday. "We’re making a difference."

Sometimes, feedings attract up to 800 sea cows in the warm waters around the power plant.

Though the programs appear to be working, officials warned people not to feed manatees themselves. Reinert said the best way to help the manatees is to "feed them with your dollars."

So far this year, there have been 164 manatee deaths. Only five deaths have been due to boat collisions, according to the state wildlife commission statistics.