On Monday afternoon, April 12th, the Florida Senate Natural
Resources Committee will vote on anti-manatee legislation
(SB 540). SB 540 deals a crushing blow to manatees by severely
weakening the Manatee Sanctuary Act. The bill says that if a
regional population has met disputed "biological goals", any
"excess" manatees could then be killed or injured by boats.
The bill could virtually halt work on manatee protection plans
and is in conflict with the federal Endangered Species Act and
the Marine Mammal Protection Act. In addition, essential funds
would be diverted from important management and recovery
research to studies that are ill-conceived and unnecessary.

Every year, Defenders of Wildlife's Florida office, as part of
the Manatee Coalition, has to fight back bad manatee legislation
despite the fact that special interests say they will cease
these legislative attacks. Once again, we need to voice our
support for strong manatee protection. Please call or email
by noon Monday to tell the Senate Natural Resources Committee
members to vote NO on SB 540.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Please go to the DEN Action Center at: http://www.denaction.org
to contact your state Senator and Governor Jeb Bush and tell
them to urge the members of the Natural Resources Committee to
"VOTE NO ON SB 540". You can also telephone the state
Senate Natural Resources Committee members (see contact
information below).

The vote will occur on MONDAY, APRIL 12, so please send your
message TODAY. Be sure to say "VOTE NO ON SB 540" in the
subject line or phone call. Thanks for helping to protect
the unique manatee, our state's official marine mammal.

Sincerely,
Laurie Macdonald
Director, Defenders of Wildlife's Florida Office

CONTACT INFORMATION FOR STATE SENATORS:

SENATE NATURAL RESOURCES COMMITTEE

Chair: Senator Alfred Lawson, Jr.
E-mail: lawson.alfred.web@flsenate.gov
Phone: 850-487-5004

Vice Chair: Senator Paula Dockery
E-mail: dockery.paula.web@flsenate.gov
Phone: 850-487-5040

Senator Nancy Argenziano
E-mail: argenziano.nancy.web@flsenate.gov
Phone: 850-487-5017

Senator Jeffrey H. Atwater
E-mail: atwater.jeff.web@flsenate.gov
Phone: 850-487-5100

Senator Lee Constantine
E-mail: constantine.lee.web@flsenate.gov
Phone: 850-487-5050

Senator Anna P. Cowin
E-mail: cowin.anna.web@flsenate.gov
Phone: 850-487-5014

Senator Gary Siplin
E-mail: siplin.gary.web@flsenate.gov
Phone: 850-487-5190

Governor Jeb Bush
E-mail: jeb.bush@myflorida.com
Phone: 850-488-4441
Fax: 850-487-0801

Thank you to Save the Manatee Club for information used in
writing this alert.

Update!

New zones yield to manatees
By CRAIG PITTMAN
Published September 23, 2004

http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/23/Tampabay/New_zones_yield_to_ma.shtml

ST. PETERSBURG - To protect manatees, state wildlife commissioners Wednesday imposed new boating speed zones on several unregulated stretches of Tampa Bay's shoreline in Hillsborough, Pinellas and Manatee counties.

The new zones will take effect as soon as state officials can post signs around the area, which will likely take place in early 2005.

The new state speed zones will free up dozens of dock-building permits that had been frozen along waterfront areas of Hillsborough and Pinellas. Federal officials said those areas were providing inadequate safeguards for manatees.

But the new zones in Manatee County do not go far enough, a federal wildlife official said, so more than a hundred dock permits there will remain in limbo. Some of those permits have been on hold for more than two years, but federal wildlife officials say they are bound to block those new permits by a law that forbids harming even one manatee.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission spent more than six hours Wednesday thrashing out where and how much to regulate boaters in Tampa Bay. Boating rights advocates made it clear they were not happy with the new rules but did not object to them. Manatee activists wanted more areas included but said they were satisfied.

Ruskin resident Dan Lavalley said he opposes regulations that infringe on his recreation just to aid an animal. "My rights as a citizen, a fisherman and a boater come first," Lavalley told wildlife commissioners. "We're not here to protect the rights of insects, birds and animals."

Florida Guides Association vice president Dave Markett, a Tampa resident, contended that waterways should not be restricted just because manatees had been injured and killed by boats there.

He compared the situation to highways where children had been hit by cars or trucks: "You don't close down a road just because a child got struck there."

Tampa Bay was targeted for new regulations because more than 300 manatees live there, nearly all of them with scars from being struck by boats.

"You are supposed to keep harmful collisions from occurring," environmental attorney Tom Reese, a St. Petersburg resident, told the commissioners. "There is a lot of damage being done by boats."

Since 1974, more than 250 manatees have turned up dead in Tampa Bay, with more than 60 of those deaths caused by boats. Tampa Bay's manatees are part of the Southwest Florida regional population group, which scientists think is in worse shape than the ones in the rest of the state.

The new regulations have been in the works since 2001, when the commission settled a lawsuit filed by environmental and animal welfare groups on behalf of manatees, which have been on the federal endangered species list for more than 30 years.

The settlement has led to new boating restrictions on both coasts, and the commission's efforts to draw up those rules have been mired in controversy. Two years ago, the Legislature said any new manatee regulations had to be vetted by a committee of residents.

Tampa Bay's rules were the first to take that route. The committee members spent two months last year reviewing rules proposed by the wildlife commission's staff and then, after a raucous public hearing in Bradenton that drew 300 angry people, voted against nearly all of them. Instead, on a series of split votes, they repeatedly recommended the state do more to educate boaters, encourage voluntary slow-downs and let counties and cities take the lead on developing regulations.

In Pinellas, the new rules will establish a slow-speed zone near Safety Harbor from April 1 to Nov. 15, running from the Courtney Campbell Parkway to Oldsmar. The commission rejected a request from Pinellas officials to include the Lake Tarpon canal outfall and Mobbly Bay, pointing out that those areas had not been included in public notices.

Tampa will have a similar seasonal slow-speed zone along the northern edge of the Courtney Campbell Parkway. Rocky Point south to the Gandy Bridge will be slow speed year round.

In Apollo Beach the state created a seasonal idle speed area south of the Tampa Electric Co. power plant, and a slow speed zone next to it. The Little Manatee River would be classified a 25-mph zone, with a slow-speed area near the river's mouth.

Commissioners had the hardest time with the Manatee County zones, particularly in the Braden River, which female manatees use to give birth and nurse.

For Manatee County, commissioners came up with a patchwork of slow-speed zones, 25-mph zones and idle-speed zones, but left some areas unregulated to accommodate water skiers. They also approved exemptions designed to benefit residents of the historic Cortez fishing village.

© Copyright 2002-2004, St. Petersburg Times