 BOATERS GO AFTER GO-SLOW ZONES STARTING TODAY, A JUDGE IN BREVARD WILL HEAR ARGUMENTS AGAINST STATE MANATEE-SAFETY RULES Orlando Sentinel -- Monday, September 24, 2001 By: Laurin Sellers, Sentinel Staff Writer MERRITT ISLAND -- For years, boaters across the state have insisted that slow-speed zones don't save manatees. This week, they intend to prove it in court. Armed with new science and old sentiments, boaters will try to persuade Administrative Law Judge F.L. Buckine to throw out new regulations for Brevard County's waterways. "I just hope this judge will be open-minded and not some tree-hugger," said Tom McGill, a charter-boat captain from Merritt Island. The judge's decision in Brevard -- the epicenter of a long-standing battle between environmentalists and boaters -- could affect manatee-protection measures statewide. "As goes Brevard, so goes the rest of the state," said McGill, one of four men who first filed legal challenges to the rules approved May 23 by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Since then, Standing Watch, a statewide boaters group with about 8,000 members, has filed a similar petition and has hired an attorney to argue its case during the same hearing. Save the Manatee Club and the Florida Wildlife Federation have lined up on behalf of the commission to persuade the judge to uphold the rules. Florida Power & Light Co. also has entered the case to protect its ability to use barges to haul fuel through the Merritt Island Barge Canal from Port Canaveral to its plant on the Indian River near Port St. John. Boaters have argued the barges kill manatees. "We've done a lot of research, and that's not the situation at all," said Winifred Perkins, manager of environmental relations for FPL. During the weeklong hearing, boaters are expected to present the findings of Edmund Gerstein, a researcher at Florida Atlantic University. Gerstein's research, including tests done earlier this month in the Indian and Banana rivers, indicates that manatees can hear the high-pitched sound of a fast-moving boat better than the low-pitched sound of a slow-moving one, McGill said. Gerstein has said equipping boats with a high-pitched underwater alert device might give manatees ample time to swim out of the way. Save the Manatee Club and state wildlife officials have dismissed much of Gerstein's research. A manatee would have to be hit several times before it associated the sound of an alert device with danger, they say. "All I can say is that the commission has adopted a valid rule that we intend to vigorously defend," said commission attorney Ross Burnaman. The judge, who isn't expected to rule until October at the earliest, can uphold the regulations and dismiss the petitions or determine that all or some of them are invalid. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. today at the Brevard County Government Center in Viera. Copyright (c) 2001, Sentinel Communications Co. |