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Friday, May 30, 2003 Do anglers hate manatees? |
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Talk about a negative public image. Could anything be more contrary to the traditional image of the angler? The guy up at the crack of dawn, looking on in awe at the beauty of wild, peaceful waters, learning the eco- system´s smallest details.
Fishermen, of course, are always referred to as “boaters” in the context of manatee speed zones. The state doesn´t keep statistics on the number of recreational boats owned by anglers, but in the “Fishing Capital of the World” you can bet it is significant.
This issue is typically framed as a fight between environmentalists, fighting to save manatees from extinction, and boaters, who are left to play the part of some cracker hell-bent on hydroplaning down the back of every manatee in the river.
Nothing could be more out of touch with reality.
Even boaters who don´t care one iota about wildlife don´t want to hit so much as a twig with their expensive boats, let alone run over a thousand-pound animal.
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
Manatee hearings happen in the Sunshine State about as often as tides. The dialogue has been dominated by emotion and biased statistics when this issue ought to be a simple matter of setting sensible speed limits.
In 2002, the state counted 922,597 registered recreational vessels and 3,276 sea cows. It´s simple arithmetic that precaution is in order. But, it´s simply insane that the choices in this discussion are no-wake zones and 30-mph slow speed zones.
No wonder boaters feel cornered. Standing Watch, the right-to-boat group, has even gone so far as to promote boaters as the endangered species. Talk about a callous reaction!
What´s the big problem with slowing down? Nothing. Most boaters probably need to slow down. But no-wake speed is about 2 mph. People drive in parking lots faster than that.
Imagine boating at 2 mph from the Granada Bridge to the Port Orange Bridge, a distance of roughly 10 miles. The trip would take 5 hours. Nudge the throttle up to 15 mph and the same trip takes just 40 minutes.
Say you had a boat docked at about the middle of the Tomoka River. That´s the Tomoka Oaks neighborhood. To get to Ponce Inlet you´d have to run a 30-mile journey of “no-wake” zones. It would take days!
The belief that no-wake is the only safe speed has left boaters feeling that they are being railroaded right out off their fishing grounds.
It´s time to introduce some radical ideas to this debate, like 10- and 15-mph zones. Wouldn´t 10 mph still be a safe speed through at least some stretches of water?
TIME TO FINISH THIS ISSUE
Even the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission´s executive director has issued a statement saying the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services´ manatee plan will hurt Floridians. The FWC´s letter says the plan is inconsistent with the USFWS´s guidelines for selecting protection areas.
At a recent meeting in Daytona Beach about the proposed Manatee Protection Zones, members of the “Save the Manatee” group defended making the entire Tomoka River a no-wake zone with the claim that the river is no more than 3 feet deep. Also, manatees have no way to get out of the way, according to Capt. Kent Gibbens, who was in attendance.
Anyone with a fish finder knows the Tomoka River is 20 feet deep in spots and at least 6 feet deep through most of the channel.
Sea cows are anything but too stupid or slow to get out of the way, and nobody wants to see these gentle creatures slaughtered by boat collisions, but there´s no reason why there can´t be some compromise between 2 and 30 mph.
This stalemate has forced fishermen into a PR nightmare and has made environmentalists look like they´re out to get boaters. Anglers and environmentalists should be allies. This fight has gone on long enough and it´s giving everyone prop scars.
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