Letter to the local liberal RAG Newspaper!
11-21-2002, 08:08 AM
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Letter to the local liberal RAG Newspaper!
Great letter in this morning's editorials. I couldn't have said it better! Intersting, the author claims NOT to be a boater!
Manatee club has lost its way
By G.S. Storrs, Cocoa Beach
A recent letter on this page suggested sinister actions behind the Save the Manatee Club's role in blocking plans to rebuild a storm-wrecked marina and later acceptance of that same project with added condos.
The Save the Manatee Club began with a small group of dedicated people volunteering to serve the cause of the manatee. The charm of that lovable animal assisted the little club in gaining enormous financial and political power.
While the club was growing, so also was the manatee population, to the degree that overpopulation is a real environmental concern.
Now, it's the Save the Manatee Club that is endangered.
The club is focusing on threats to its own existence. With the manatee out of danger, what else can they do?
Their attack on the marina was just another battle, not for the manatee, but against threats to the club's corporate existence.
The same facility with added condos, is now fine, because the new ownership doesn't oppose the Save the Manatee Club.
It was never about any danger to the manatees.
Don't be deluded into thinking there's no income to gain from a nonprofit corporation.
Of all manatee deaths, only 14 to 17 percent are from boat collisions. The majority are from heavy commercial operations. Yet these are exempt from attack by the club.
They do not threaten the club itself, and the club carefully avoids bothering commercial operations.
Causing 3 to 5 percent of manatee deaths, pleasure boaters are not a major threat to manatees. But boaters do oppose the club's current tyrannical agenda.
We are now confronted with wide-sweeping restrictions on pleasure boating that are unlikely to save any manatees.
I'm not a powerboater, but just another manatee lover.
MD
Manatee club has lost its way
By G.S. Storrs, Cocoa Beach
A recent letter on this page suggested sinister actions behind the Save the Manatee Club's role in blocking plans to rebuild a storm-wrecked marina and later acceptance of that same project with added condos.
The Save the Manatee Club began with a small group of dedicated people volunteering to serve the cause of the manatee. The charm of that lovable animal assisted the little club in gaining enormous financial and political power.
While the club was growing, so also was the manatee population, to the degree that overpopulation is a real environmental concern.
Now, it's the Save the Manatee Club that is endangered.
The club is focusing on threats to its own existence. With the manatee out of danger, what else can they do?
Their attack on the marina was just another battle, not for the manatee, but against threats to the club's corporate existence.
The same facility with added condos, is now fine, because the new ownership doesn't oppose the Save the Manatee Club.
It was never about any danger to the manatees.
Don't be deluded into thinking there's no income to gain from a nonprofit corporation.
Of all manatee deaths, only 14 to 17 percent are from boat collisions. The majority are from heavy commercial operations. Yet these are exempt from attack by the club.
They do not threaten the club itself, and the club carefully avoids bothering commercial operations.
Causing 3 to 5 percent of manatee deaths, pleasure boaters are not a major threat to manatees. But boaters do oppose the club's current tyrannical agenda.
We are now confronted with wide-sweeping restrictions on pleasure boating that are unlikely to save any manatees.
I'm not a powerboater, but just another manatee lover.
MD
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