Offshoreonly.com - The latest from the $MC

Speak Up For Manatees:
Be Part Of The Process!
Public Input Needed On State Manatee Management Plan

On June 7, over the objections of numerous scientists and thousands of citizens, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) voted to downlist manatees from Endangered to Threatened status in Florida. They did so despite the fact that the state's own scientific assessment shows that manatees clearly met the international criteria for endangered species.

Save the Manatee Club and 16 other organizations filed a legal petition asking the FWC to fix its flawed imperiled species classification system. But the state is proceeding with the downlisting process. Phase 2 of this process involves the development and approval of a management plan, and the FWC is currently seeking public input on the plan by August 8, 2006. This is where you come in. We need you to be a voice for manatees!

What You Can Do
1. Please help protect manatees by sending your comments

We would like the FWC to receive as many personalized letters or e-mails as possible from manatee supporters living in and outside of Florida. We know it takes a bit more time, but it's worth it to make sure that manatees get as much protection as possible under the new plan. Comments must be submitted by 5:00 p.m. on August 8, 2006. (See our suggestions for what the management plan should include below.)

Manatee Management Plan Comments, DHSC
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
620 South Meridian Street
Mail Station 6A
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1600

Comments can also be submitted by e-mail to [email protected].

2. Please make a donation now. You will be helping us do whatever it takes to make sure manatees are protected under the new management plan.

Click here to donate now

3. Click on the E-mail This Page feature below to send this notice to as many people as you can.

Suggested Comments:
The state's management plan should include:

-The adoption of the entire federal recovery plan, which is more species specific and addresses habitat stability. (Manatees remain endangered on the federal list.)

A contingency plan for power plants going off line, so manatees don't lose warm water sources upon which they have come to depend. Unless this is done, literally hundreds of manatees will likely die of cold stress. And the $MC backs artificial/man made havens for Manatees! IT is not their natural habitat, but the $MC doesn't care, and guess who will pay for all of this, taxpayers

-Constitutional protections for Florida's endangered and threatened species.

-Moving up the timelines for setting minimum flows for Florida's springs so manatees' natural warm water sources don't disappear.

- A mandatory manatee education program for boaters. (Although more than 90% of Florida's boaters favor such a program, the marine industry is still fighting against it.)

Everybody ready to go to Manatee Class? How about the out of state boaters, do they have to take the class also? :mad:

-A cumulative effects analysis of waterfront development and its impacts on manatees and manatee habitat.

-A system of refuges and sanctuaries for manatees connected by travel corridors.

WE live on a manatee sanctuaries and we hardly ever see Manatees in Sykes creek!
Thank you for your help on this important issue for manatees!

Read more about the downlisting issue

These people are REALLY Worried about their jobs!!!!!! :mad:
Dean