Attn. Fl Boaters, espeically Lee County boaters
 

I found this @ www.standing-watch.org The STM will NEVER STOP until they control the Fl. Waterways. I'm not sure what to do about this, other than spread the word! Check out the map @ Standing-Watch about what they are proposing to INCREASE the Manatee Zones in Lee County!
MD

"Keeping Our Guard Up"
By
Jim Kalvin

The celebration over the passing of the Harrington Bill was short-lived. Forget about the fact that Save the Manatee Club immediately took credit for pushing the bill through – even though they lobbied against it, and called for all politicians to “defeat this anti-manatee legislation” until minutes before the final unanimous passage by the House and Senate. There are items in the works that make this issue pale by comparison, and could immediately affect all boaters and water access enthusiasts in Florida.

First and foremost, the Judge presiding over the Administrative Challenge to the Brevard County Manatee Protection plan ruled against all issues raised by the boating interests. You can read more detail on that in my letter, “At The Helm” elsewhere in this newsletter.

Second, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has stopped all dock permitting in Lee County. Period. In the release issued by the “Service,” they state – in their own words, “It is unclear if there is anything an applicant could do to get a permit.” This is done due to pressure from Save the Manatee Club, and is the first flex of the muscle that is known as the D.C. Settlement Agreement – whereby the Service is expected to take “emergency management measures” at the behest of the Club – when it is deemed that there is “inadequate protection” in place for manatees.

This second issue is worrisome, because manatee mortality in Lee County spiked immediately following the implementation of vast, and comprehensive speed zones that were put in place by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. These zones force all boats in the Caloosahatchee River into the Intracoastal Channel to run on plane. Synoptic survey data shows that the edges of this channel is where the manatees travel when they leave the power plant to attempt to find food much further to the west.

They concentrated all vessel traffic right in with the manatees, and mortality spiked. And now, regulators, scientists, and resource managers are perplexed at the record fatalities attributed to boat strikes. Rather than re-evaluate the new speed zones that were put in place immediately prior to this, the Club and the Service have chosen to stop the issuance of permits throughout the County.

The effect on businesses? Devastating. Marine Contractors, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, boat-lift manufacturers, hardware & lumber suppliers, and all related employees will be directly and immediately impacted. Space prohibits discussion of the impact on the life-styles of waterfront property owners.

On another topic, which could be even more devastating to ALL OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS IN FLORIDA - Save the Manatee Club has intervened in a case going to the Florida Supreme Court that was filed by the Carribean Conservation Corporation, Inc. The case number is SCO1 – 1885. The Case is Carribean Cons. Corp. vs Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. At issue is whether the FFWCC is answerable to the Legislature on any issues regarding protection of protected species – namely, manatees. SMC contends that the FFWCC is a constitutional agency, and that this exempts them from any “interference” by our elected officials.

The Marine Industries Association filed a brief explaining that the Legislature delegated the rule-making for manatee protection to the FWCC after they became an agency (via Florida ballot in 1999). Therefore, the Legislature should retain responsibility and direction over the issue. They were successful, and the Judge ruled that the Bureau of Protected Species Management (as an arm of the FFWCC) is answerable to the Legislature. SMC is taking the matter to the Supreme Court, and if they are successful, BPSM and the FFWCC will be able to operate as they wish, with our elected representatives having no say, or control, over what the agency is able to do.

Given the present state of affairs with respect to unanswered questions, perceived abuses of regulatory authority, perceived excessive regulatory programs, the lack of consideration of public input or the economic impact of these regulations – all while the agency is answerable to the Legislature – I shudder to think of what the so-called “environmental” special interests will be able to do if this initiative is allowed to win the day.

That's another sickening display of over-regulation and misguided legislation.

Rather than re-examine the particular manatee zones which were contributed to record numbers of deaths, what do they do?...They make more nonsensical zones and restrictions. It's absurd.

That new initiative is scary. :mad: :(

Nick,
You are correct, this lawsuit that the STM wants to take to the Fl Supreme Court, would basically allow the FFWCC to be funded by the Fl. Leg. (AKA the Fl. taxpayers) and allow the FFWCC to be accountable to NO ONE in the State of FL. Gov't, or Fl. citizens!! The only people the FFWCC will be accountable to will be the STM Club, The Sierra Club, PETA, etc! And remember, this isn't just about boating in Fl., it will affect anybody who is an OUTDOOR ENTHUSIAST!! This action on the Behalf of the STM club is their response to us TAYPAYERS getting our State Reps involved this year and passing the NEW Manatee Legislation!! The STM Club wants NO more interference from the Fl. Legislature!!!:mad:
MD

Dean
I just bought a house on the Cal river about a mile from the power plant, and just had the manatee regs lifted. Heard about the dock permit situation, but thought it was a temp thing till they get it resolved. BTW the STM folks go up to the power plant and pitch lettice into the water to lure the manatees up..and they got caught. I dont know the outcome. but the pricks will try anything its obvious. So far I've been lucky..I got my dock in and havent hit any of the friggin things yet. Its gonna be a tough one this year..I'll try to keep abreast of things. Look foward to meetin you sometime.
Dan

Well, isn't that nice...Job security is priority #1, manatees come second! :mad: :mad:

How ya been, Dan? Do have an article of that, I would love to read it...

Dean,

I am sure glad I don't live in Florida. Unbelievable! It is so frustrating and infuriating that I cannot even think straight. Good luck to everyone fighting these eco-terrorists!

Shane:mad:

DanB,
I too would be very interested in reading ANYTHING you have on that story about the STM pitching lettece to the Manatees. I'm glad you got your dock in before they stopped issuing permits. I also have a Q?, in your post said the Manatee Regs were lifted? Do you mean they took some Manatee zones out? How far do you have to idle? Do you know how the NEW Zones are going to affect you?
The BIGGER worry is if the STM can BEAT this lawsuit before the Fl. Supreme Court, then everything OUTDOORS in Fl. will be up for regulation by the tree-huggers, and we, the citizens of Fl. or OUR Fl. State Gov't can't do ANYTHING about it!!!!!!!
I too look forward to meeting you and family, and BTW,
WELCOME to FL.:cool:
Shane,
Good morning, and yes it so frustrating, yet I REFUSE to let these MFer's ruin our way of life and they are TRYING to keep Manatees in Harm's way!!
BD,
Hey brother,
MD

Dean
I didnt see the lettice thing in the papers, it was on a local radio station here. The no wake manatee zones run from about nov to mar on the river, then its back to the normal stuff.
Funny thing..a manatee came up to me when i was working on my dock and just laid there lookin at me for about 20 mins.....i guess he thought i was a stm'er and thought i'd feed him. They got them trained now i guess. Didnt think much about it at the time till I heard about the lettice trick.
Dan

These things migrated up from the West Indies they are not indigenous to Florida Period! Maybe that is the answer we need to find what, and import some! Natural enemies that is.

Best Regards
:D

Steve1...Sorry to dissagree...but...there are fossil records in Florida that place the Manatee there 45 million years ago....And this also bears repeating....We are the only species on the planet that has the power to protect ALL the Species...Think about it...;)

Crash you are telling me that the manatee has been happily living in the Florida waterways for 45 thats 45 million Years??Not true what did the Florida coastline look like just 20,000 years ago?? Well ill tell you it probably extended to the west 250 miles or so and east off Jacksonville Florida about 100-150 miles...

Look your Manatee either had legs and lived on dry land when the water was consumed by the Continental ice sheets, and the sea level was very low, or it was not here period..

By the way story has it they are very good cooked!!



:p

I think you are wrong. Our very existence prevents us from protecting/saving all endangered species. If we continue to live some other animal is bound to be displaced or killed off by our existence. It has been happening this way in the animal world for more than 45 million years! The only way that we can assure that we won't interfere with some animal is for the human race to cease to exist. I don't think so.

Phillip Gosse (1851) reports that "I had the pleasure of breakfasting on manatee steaks which had delicious flavour, without any oiliness." Then he goes on to describe a scene at Black River: Man sounds good to me !!



:D :D

I was wondering how long it would be until SC jumped in ??? SC please tell me where you got your data ?? is that source you are quoting from a Sierra Club magazine??? just wondering ??? let me know??? Thanks

OK ....buttheads...We have been through this before .....
http://wld.fwc.state.fl.us/critters/manatee.asp

Steve1...You might be on the other side of this debate...but...nobody needs stupid comments about eating Manatee...Letters about the Manatee issue have been printed in powerboat by members here...and that talk just ruins the credibility of the board on the issue...

Crash First off it is you who needs creditability; Secondly I personally was not real happy about that piece on the Manatee Steak! In reality I was looking for an old Island recipe for a Stew or Curry but that was all I could find sorry about that!:p :p

SC "for President"...

LMAO...NOW I know what Gore has been up to! :D:p

DanB,
Thanks for the update, please go to www.standing-watch.org which is based in Lee County, and see what the STM Club has in mind for your waterways. Standing-Watch is BIGGEST boater/outdoor recreation/Property rights group in Fl. and they NEED your membership $$. We also belong to CFW, (Citizens for Florida Waterways, www.cfwbrevard.org ). We NOW have the attention of alot lawmakers in Fl. and THAT is where we can make a difference!!:cool: The laws are outdated and written by ECO-RADICAL Lobbing efforts, that don't really reflect good sound science and the general Fl. citizen's position on these issues! We can sit here and debate these issues with ignorant people, OR we can get organizied, FUNDED, and make changes in the law, that will LIMIT the amount of influence that groups like the STM Club can have!!:D We are off and running, BUT, we NEED YOUR HELP, (Another plug for $$). Rest assured, that we, (CFW and Standing Watch) will APPEAL this latest injustice, and continue to fight the STM Club and the FFWCC, and try to help the Manatee @ the same time.
MD

Here is CFW's response to the Judge's ruling,

The Administrative Law Judge has issued his Final Order in the Brevard Rule Challenge.

Following two weeks of hearings, during which the judge appeared to understand the regulatory abuse suffered at the hands of FFW&CC, the Petitioners were handed a complete loss.

Despite the expert testimony of fishing charter Captain Jim Ross, who told the judge that the regulations would seriously hurt his business and make a "grand slam" impossible to catch, the judge found that the regulations were not unduly burdensome.

Despite the six hour slide presentation showing that manatees are rarely found in the proposed zones, the judge found that the frequency requirement had been met.

Despite the Commission's explanation of how the proposed zones are almost exactly what Save the Manatee Club wanted in their lawsuit settlement, the judge found the similarity to be a coincidence.

Despite the expert testimony of Drs. Gerstein and Blue to the contrary, the judge found that manatees can hear slow moving boats.

Despite the expert testimony of James Wood about his propeller scar study and the differences between a tug's 60 inch propeller and a small boat's 15 inch propeller, the judge found that there's just no way to tell how large a vessel caused a particular scar.

Despite the bumbling, contradictory testimony of the FPL's tug captain, the judge found him reliable enough to prove that manatees can hear barges.

Despite proof that the Commission's witnesses acted in an unethical manner to deny Drs. Gerstein and Blue a permit to test manatee response to boats in the wild, the judge found them trustworthy enough to find that anything humans do in the water harasses manatees.

Despite testimony that satellite telemetry data was intended to track long-range migration and is only accurate to about a kilometer (0.6 miles), the judge found it to be reliable enough to restrict boating in nearly every good water-ski spot and in 1/4 mile wide strips down the length of Brevard County.

In the end, the judge abandoned the common sense he showed during the 10-day hearing, instead falling back upon the dozens of half-baked research reports with their unanimous conclusion that motorboats must be slowed. He rejected the evidence supplied by Petitioners in favor of the gutless comfort of siding with the "professionals" at FFW&CC. Despite being showed that the Commission acted beyond their powers, that the rule wouldn't help the manatee, that the rule came directly from the lawsuit settlement, that people would be hurt, and that manatees don't frequent the proposed zones, the judge ruled against us.

The people lost.

What would our Founding Fathers think about the judge's findings? Would they be troubled that such restrictive rules were handed down by unelected bureaucrats and approved by an unconcerned commission? Would they find fault with the way citizens' lives are regulated based on opinion and conjecture rather than solid understanding? Would they have a problem with having to pay taxes to support this abuse?

The Declaration of Independence lists wrongs committed by the King of England against the colonies. Some of the findings are strikingly familiar to the Petitioners. Among those: "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance" and "In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury." The solution in 1776 was to "throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." What will we do!?

Have a nice day,
MD:D

Steve1....my info is correct...do your own search...Why do I need credibility...?...You are a typical poster on this subject...you don't know chit about the issue and you come on here and take a shot at me without telling me what damaged my credibility.......Please tell me what you think...oh I already know..."They are not indigous to Florida , PERIOD"...(DEAD WRONG)...And that we should bring in a "natural enemies" to eat them...

Steve1 listen up ...The people on the board that disscuss the issue on manatees are all in favor of saving the animal...Your insults , missinformation , and cracks about eating them don't belong...go back to your jenny jones show where you belong...

Crash like wow man Take another hit on the Bong..

Here is My problem . Since It did not crawl out of Primordial Florida mud!!! It Must be an interloper.
indigenous
: originating where it is found; "the autochthonal fauna of Australia includes the kangaroo"; "autochthonous rocks and people and folktales"; "endemic folkways"; "the Ainu are indigenous to the northernmost islands of Japan" [syn: autochthonal, autochthonic, autochthonous, endemic]

Now The bones you were refering to were rib bone parts from an Dugong.But since it is a sirenia the tree huggers figured close enough,SoThey see fit to streach the truth a Bit!!


The Florida Manatee is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee Right !! not vise versa ?? Right Mr Expert ???



Now About the Friendly Glaciation the most recent period, which began about 1.5 million years ago and ended (or at least subsided) within the last 15,000 years.Crash wow!! all of your dears were very extinct during this period around florida..

Now !! Have you ever seen One in the wild ??



Probability would be low that any exist in Lake Michigan!




Crash hate to burst your bubble but people do eat the things, The meat is pink, As you Know being Mr. Expert and all Whiter the Meat the better ,the dark blood color is least desired Pink is very good ..Reports are: Tastes like Pork,some say Chicken then others say Beef..Its all on the Internet go look!


Closing rebuttal: Creditability Well Crash See one looses that thru Insults and you are way way down in that area.



:p :p

steve...you fail to see that the fossils dated to 45 million years ago was from a Dugong and it is impossible for the same creature to be around today because evolution has slightly changed the animal...Today we get the manatee...Your PRIMATE ancestors didn't quite look like you do today...Why don't you go eat your dog or some other endangered animal

Rash your ignorance is mind boggling,and for a claimed to be Manatee Expert that is a real no, no.Look Mr. Expert it was around that time that the creature stopped walking on land and became aquatic, now Who did the alleged bones come from? A walking Dugong, or a swimming Dugong, or walking talking swimming purple with white polka dots Dugong??

Also you never answered my question Have you ever seen a Manatee in the wild??

Also more credibility just went with that last attempt at Insult
:p :p :p :p :p :p

This a letter in the editorial section of our local tree-hugging newspaper today!:mad:


Manatee numbers are increasing
By Bill Case Merritt Island

Since 1975, I have lived on the Girard Canal off the Banana River south of Kelly Park.

Recently, I have been seeing as many as five manatees at a time in our canal, and I see pairs or trios every day.

When I first moved here and for many years thereafter, a manatee was a rare visitor.

As a frequent boater, I seldom saw them in the Banana River.

I have given up boating, partially as a result of waterway restrictions.

The population of manatees obviously is growing rapidly, and as a consequence their injuries should be expected to increase.

But they are not.

Has anyone studied the damage done to the grass flats by manatees?

Has anyone studied the consequences of the large amounts of manatee waste deposited in the lagoon?

Boaters should have some rights, even if they are in the minority.

The Save the Manatee Club places manatees on a higher level than the human/boater population of the area.

No boater wants to hit or kill manatees, and they are cautious when aware of their presence.

Have a nice day!
:cool:
MD

PS Steve 1, I sent you a PM.