 TOO MANY MANATEES? BOATERS, DEVELOPERS DECRY MORE RESTRICTIONS, SAY THE 'SEA COWS' ARE THRIVING IN NUMBERS Miami Herald -- Sunday, April 1, 2001 By: Curtis Morgan, Herald Staff Writer Ragged gouges ran the length of the broad gray tail, exposing a mangle of blood streaked flesh. The vets at Miami Seaquarium could do little. The manatee, dubbed Sid, died in two days. Though routine as such things go, Sid's death last month was notable. Sid, along with 20-some other carcasses collected so far this year, pushed Florida past a grim milestone. Three months into the 27th year of counting manatees run down by boats, the toll has topped four figures, including a record 82 in 1999. Florida's unofficial tally put Sid at No. 1,008. Faced with mounting deaths and prodded by lawsuits by environmental groups, state and federal wildlife agencies are crafting protection proposals for the endangered and beloved West Indian manatee that will encompass miles of popular waters statewide. The backlash is building fast, with fishing, marine and development interests pushing authorities to soften policies that will slow boaters in many coastal counties, establish at least 16 more manatee "safe havens", and sharply increase the difficulty, as well as the cost, of getting new dock and marina permits. Critics have what seems a compelling argument: By some measures, the manatee isn't disappearing but thriving. An aerial survey in January spotted 3,276 - 600 more than the previous high recorded in 1996. That means that an endangered species whose population only a decade ago was typically estimated at about 1,500 has more than doubled. And biologists consider such counts only a "minimum number." Hundreds more could be out there. "One of the primary reasons you've seen an increase in the sheer number of manatees killed by boats is that there's been a fairly substantial increase in manatees," says Ted Forsgren, executive director of the Coastal Conservation Association, a recreational angling group. "At what point do you declare success so you don't have to crack down on boaters?" It's a key question with no clear answer and lots of contradictory data. Most scientists believe the manatee remains at risk, and the most reliable analysis suggests the overall population is, at best, stable. But the most extensively researched data they rely on are nearly a decade old. And in some places - northwest Florida and the Upper St. John's River - there's undeniably been a boom. "Bottom line, it's hard to count living ones," says Bruce Ackerman, a scientist at the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg who directs the annual survey. The lumpy, lumbering, seagrass-munching sea cow has long been the poster mammal of wild Florida. It's so popular it boasts a license plate, which fetches the state's manatee management program nearly $2.5 million a year. Public support also has made the Maitland-based Save The Manatee Club one of the state's largest environmental groups. Last year, arguing the manatee rested on the "razor edge of extinction," the club and 18 other environmental groups sued the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, charging they were failing to even enforce existing rules. The major concern: a steady rise in boat kills, which account for about a quarter of all manatee deaths each year. In January, the federal agency settled. By Sept. 28, it plans to designate at least 16 manatee refuges, which would slow boaters to a crawl, and sanctuaries, which effectively ban humans. Most are expected to be in Central Florida, including Brevard, a manatee haven and the state's boat-kill capital, and along the Southwest Coast, another hot spot. In addition, the service, under the authority of the federal Endangered Species Act, is drawing up standards for waterfront development, including one that will bill builders and homeowners for stepped-up law enforcement. In some critical spots where there are already a lot of boats and manatees, it could scale back or even block projects if they might increase manatee deaths or harm habitat. The state, which also drew up a tentative settlement with the environmental groups, is planning a similar list of "safe havens, "Blue Lagoon and Sky Lakes near Miami International Airport among them. The commission also will set more slow-speed and no-wake zones in Charlotte, Hillsborough, Manatee, Volusia, Indian River, Martin and Palm Beach, and increase patrols. It goes beyond state and federal agencies. In 1989, the state ordered the 13 coastal counties with the highest number of manatee deaths to enact protection plans. Only four ever finished, including Miami-Dade, which quickly imposed wide-ranging speed zones. Broward is currently writing one. Other counties set speed zones, most sporadically enforced. The suspicion is that boats have caused the deaths of hundreds more than he official count of 1,000-plus reflects. Young calf deaths are up, and Patti Thompson, biologist for the Save The Manatee Club, suspects boats might play a role by killing mothers, leaving the 1- and 2-year-olds to fend for themselves. Most adult manatees bear propeller scars, and dozens of manatees are pulled from the water each year too decomposed to determine the cause of death, she says. "You cannot believe on a July day what can happen to a baby manatee carcass," she says. "It can be nothing but soup in the space of 24 hours." For critics, the impending regulations smack of overkill. John Sprague, president of the Marine Industries Association of Florida, says the numbers don't justify crippling businesses and frustrating owners of the state's 830,000 registered boats. The refuges and sanctuaries will close or severely limit access to thousands of acres of shallow grass flats, home to trout, snook and tarpon, anglers say. Extensive slow or idle speed zones also could make other areas impractical to fish because it would take so long to reach them. Sprague and many others say manatee advocates ignore the big picture, playing up gruesome kills like the one that shredded Sid in the warm waters near a Riviera Beach power plant. Every category in state mortality records has tracked upwards as well - natural causes, undetermined deaths, deaths in flood gates and by other human causes, and calf deaths - indications, they say, of more manatees. For concerned boaters and builders, the fear is that as the population continues to expand, so will areas that are impacted. Take Turtle Bay in Charlotte Harbor on the Southwest coast, which has been designated for restrictions, despite the fact no manatee boat death has ever been recorded there. "The biggest problem is there are times of the year that the tides are so low that the only way to get back to the prime fishing spots is to run up on plane (bow raised high)," says fishing guide Merrily Dunn. Dunn isn't dead set against manatee refuges. In fact, many anglers and guides support more protection for the grass flats they depend on for their livelihood as well. She'd even consider a protective cage around the boat propeller if that was necessary, she says. The worry is: Where does it stop? Neither scientists nor the environmental groups have yet to establish how many manatees is enough, says Sprague. "There's no standard with the manatee," he says. "It's like a moving target." In court papers, the Save The Manatee Club named 115 spots around the state it wanted studied for restrictions, including two that are huge and hugely popular with anglers - Whitewater Bay in Everglades National Park and the 10,000 Islands of the Southwest coast, which is scheduled for review by 2003. The Fish and Wildlife Service has circulated another list with 150 potential spots. Karl Wickstrom, influential publisher of Florida Sportsman, has campaigned in his magazine against the boating crackdown, calling for what he calls reasonable solutions. For one, 25 mile-per-hour speed limits rather than no-wake or idle zones. The manatee war already has left scars on some businesses. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which issues permits for coastal development, has been sitting on some 800 pending requests while the Fish and Wildlife Service works up its manatee plans. The process of adopting a formal plan could take years but an "interim strategy" hints at potential hurdles to further development, particularly marinas. One goal of federal regulators is to boost the number of enforcement patrols. Builders and homeowners will help pick up the tab under a complicated formula. Sprague says it could cost a marina $500 to $1,000 a slip annually for 10 years - if a permit is approved. Even some homeowners will face a one-time patrol charge if their docks are large enough. For Diane Whitley, the manatee regulations have been a nightmare of red tape. It's been two years since a hurricane damaged Whitley Marina in Cocoa along the Indian River in Brevard, where more manatee live and die than any other county. Whitley and her husband Joseph, who have owned the marina since 1969, have downsized plans from 66 to 59 boat slips after objections, but permitting agencies, pressured by environmental groups, continue to demand more cutbacks. She's out some $15,000 to $20,000 in legal fees. "If you could walk on manatee backs from shoreline to shoreline, the bureaucrats and the manatee club, they'd say we need more restrictions," she says. Whitley is far from alone in her anger. At public meetings, authorities have gotten scant support - hundreds of protesters turned out in Brevard and more than 2,000 showed up in Punta Gorda last month. On the Internet, diatribes dismiss sea cows as "fat bambis." The intensity has taken the agencies and environmental groups by ssurprise. Thompson described the Punta Gorda crowd as "in a mob mentality." The 115 sites the club identified are simply a "pie-in-the-sky wish list," she says. "Had I known that people were going to go nuts over it, I probably would have put a disclaimer on it." Even given the murky status of the sea cow, authorities insist that too many manatee wind up like Sid - on a necropsy slab as another statistic. "I don't think we agree with environmental groups that the species is critically endangered," says Steve Forsythe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's South Florida Ecosystem Office. But it's also "an inescapable fact" that a soaring number of boats has taken an increasing toll. "We can't let that go on." FLORIDA'S FOUR MANATEE GROUPS Despite an all-time high aerial survey of 3,276 manatees last year in Florida, biologists aren't ready to remove the mammal from the endangered list. Deaths continue to climb, including from boats. More important, the survival and reproductive rates of individual animals indicate manatees, which scientists divide into four fairly isolated groups, may be rising only in the two smallest regions. SOURCE: Manatee Population Status Working Group BETTY WINTERS IN SOUTH FLORIDA Using radio tracking collars, scientists have studied the movements of hundreds of manatees over the decades. While some range as far north as North Carolina Island during summers, most make seasonal migrations aong the Florida coast. [The map shows how] a manatee named Betty (TBC-24) spent approximately six years (1989 to 1994). She left the Banana in Brevard County around November or December, wintered in Miami-Dade, particularly the Coral Gables Waterway, then returned in late Feburary or early April. SOURCE: U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Caribbean Science Center MANATEE DEATHS, 1974-1999 The top 10 counties for overall manatee mortality from 1974 to 1999. Causes are categorized as boats, flood gates or canals, other human causes, perinatal, cold stess, other natural causes and undeterimed. Brevard: 733 - 171 by boat Lee: 610 - 114 by boat Collier: 330 - 95 by boat Duval: 239 - 77 by boat Miami-Dade: 192 - 37 by boat Volusia: 155 - 42 by boat Charlotte: 126 - 31 by boat Martin: 124 - 37 by boat Monroe: 120 - 16 by boat Broward: 113 - 40 by boat SOURCE: Florida Marine Research Institute Copyright (c) 2001, The Miami Herald |