Miami ? The manatee, long the poster mammal of the environmental movement in Florida, lost its endangered status from the state on Wednesday.

A manatee is seen at the Manatees Rescue section of Sea World in Orlando, Fla. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to remove the manatee from the state's endangered species list.

The controversial move was the latest and biggest political win for boating and building interests, which five years ago launched a campaign against a growing array of restrictions intended to protect the lumbering sea cows.

Whether dropping down a notch to “threatened” on the Florida’s list of imperiled species will cost the manatee more of its state protections remains to be seen. The mammal still is covered under the federal Endangered Species Act, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also is in the process of re-evaluating that designation.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved the downlisting in a 7-0 vote, citing population estimates that have more than doubled in the past two decades to roughly 3,000 animals.

Commissioners also voted to remove the bald eagle from the state’s list, where it had been classified as “threatened.” They based their decision on surveys that show a dramatic rebound in nesting from 88 nests in 1973 to about 1,400 last year and a 300 percent increase in population to more than 3,300 birds.

They elevated two other species to “threatened” – the Panama City crayfish and the gopher tortoise, a species whose population has dropped by at least half, a decline partially attributable to a state permitting procedure that allowed developers to bury them alive in the burrows they dig. Wildlife managers did not offer a pledge sought by activists to immediately stop the gruesome practice, which has killed about 74,000 tortoises since 1991. But they said they were working on plans to eliminate it and make relocating the reptiles easier.