 2 PLANS, SAME GOAL: HELP MANATEES Palm Beach Post -- Wednesday, February 21, 2001 By: Jim Reeder, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer State wildlife officials are proposing a new manatee protection plan for Brevard County that would include permanent slow-speed zones along both coasts of the Indian River. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's amended plan also would include an area in the northeast corner of the Banana River near the Cape Canaveral wastewater treatment plant where motorboats would be banned. It also would make the entire Barge Canal a permanent slow-speed zone and reduce the maximum speed allowed in the Intracoastal Waterway through Brevard County from 30 to 25 mph. The commission will hold a 4 p.m. public workshop March 7 at the Brevard County Commission chambers in Viera.Noticeably absent from the state's amended plan is any attempt to restrict boating in much of Mosquito Lagoon or in the extreme north end of the Indian River lagoon. Both possibilities surfaced when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced plans for manatee protection. Both plans stem from lawsuits brought by a coalition of 19 environmental and animal-protection groups which contended both governments were lax in manatee protection efforts. The fish and wildlife service settled its suit but is trying to get an extension of the April 2 deadline for finalizing its plan, a service official said. Chuck Underwood, public-information specialist with the service's Jacksonville office, said the federal agency would rather have manatee protection plans done at the state or local level. In the plan, he said, "There's a lot of duplication." While specifics of the federal plan are not final, Underwood said, "We have no intention of turning vast stretches of waterways into sanctuaries with no-boat or no-motor restrictions." Scott Calleson of the state bureau of protected species management said the state's plan for Brevard County only has the small no-boat zone in the Banana River near the Cape Canaveral treatment plant. He said specifically that the state is leaving untouched Mosquito Lagoon and the north end of the Indian River lagoon. "While there is some threat to the manatees in Mosquito Lagoon, there is not enough of a threat to justify any change," Calleson said. "And we don't feel there is a need for more protection in the north part of the basin." The plan does include a sliver of a permanent slow-speed zone in Mosquito Lagoon from the Intracoastal Waterway westward, from just south of the eastern end of Haulover Canal north to the Brevard County line. The slow-speed zone also includes Dummit's Cove-Black Point area to the railroad bridge. "Basically, what's new is that south of State Road 528 along almost all of the Indian River there is a 1,000-foot buffer zone on each side, which is a permanent slow-speed zone," Calleson said. He defined slow speed as a boat being "off-plane, settled in the water and not producing excessive wake." Existing slow-speed zones around the two electric power plants south of Titusville are to be kept and a half-mile-wide slot-speed zone opposite the plants extends from the SR 528 causeway to Banana Creek, with just a small break north of the causeway. While Underwood said the federal fish and wildlife service has 150 potential sites for various restrictions, none has been finalized and the service is hoping to gain an extension of its April 2 deadline. "We're going at this on a timeline driven by the lawsuit, but we would rather see an effective plan at the county or state level," he said. Copyright (c) 2001, Palm Beach Post |