 LIMITS LOOM FOR BIG LAGOON Orlando Sentinel -- Sunday, February 25, 2001 By: Don Wilson, Sentinel Columnist TITUSVILLE -- Thousands of anglers who fish popular Mosquito Lagoon face major changes in how they fish this year. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials are concerned that the 40,000-acre lagoon, almost all of it inside the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, is too popular for its own environmental health. They are considering ways to limit anglers and curtail the damage they are doing to the lagoon's fragile ecosystem. Chief Ranger Dorn Whitmore said flats fishers have overrun the lagoon to the point that new restrictions are needed. "The fish are being hounded to death," Whitmore said. "When you put 200 boats in the lagoon in one day they're running over the fish." Although the lagoon once was only crowded on weekends, it has now become a seven-day-a-week attraction to hordes of anglers. "You go out there now on a Wednesday and you can hardly launch because of the crowds," Whitmore said. So refuge managers are considering ways to limit angler impact. "We are going to start our comprehensive conservation plan next summer," Whitmore said. "We realize we need to do something with Mosquito Lagoon because the place is being overrun. It's being fished to death." He said restrictions are a result of an explosion in popularity of saltwater flats fishing and the development of a breed of flats boats capable of operating in extremely shallow water. Those boats can scar grass bed and disturb waterfowl. He said the fish and wildlife service is considering the establishment of poling-only zones where anglers could not operate motors and would have to use long poles to push their boats. Whitmore said it has not been decided how to put a poling zone in place. The entire southern part of the lagoon could be a poling zone, or the zone could encompass only the shallow sides of the lagoon, with motor use allowed in its deeper central corridor. "This is all still a little premature, but we could designate it by depth contour - say that inside a three-foot water depth zone or two-foot water anglers would have to pole their boats," he said. He said one problem with such a designation is that the lagoon's depth fluctuates constantly. Another is the sheer size of the shallow lagoon. A 20-mile-long lagoon is difficult to patrol," Whitmore said. Other changes could result from staff planning sessions as well. "I think there are going to be some changes in the lagoon, but we're not at the point to discuss details right now," he said. News of the planned restrictions comes on top of a new round of restrictions by state officials to improve Brevard County's plan to protect the endangered manatee. State wildlife experts are prepared to air their plans for expanding manatee-protection zones throughout the county. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is holding a workshop March 7 at the Brevard County governmental complex in Viera to outline its new manatee-protection plan. The plan basically would extend slow-speed zones along both shores of the Indian River throughout the county and make them effective year-round. It also would reduce the speed limit in the Intracoastal Waterway channel from 30 to 25 mph. The state plan would leave untouched Mosquito Lagoon and the north end the Indian River lagoon. The only exception would be a sliver of permanent slow-speed zones 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 the Indian River's Dummit's Cove-Black Point area to the railroad bridge. Copyright (c) 2001, Sentinel Communications Co. |