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Monday, November 10, 2003

Pretending manatees aren´t endangered

News-Journal Editorial

Florida´s manatees are in trouble. The problem is very straightforward: More boats are crowding onto Florida´s lakes and rivers. More manatees are being hit and killed by boats. They don´t breed fast enough to keep up. They´re in trouble.

You can´t find a credible marine scientist who will say otherwise. The federal government recognizes that the manatee´s situation is dire. Gov. Jeb Bush recognized the gentle animals´ danger when he proclaimed November “Manatee Awareness Month.”

So why are so many Florida officials intent on pretending otherwise?

Later this month, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is scheduled to discuss downgrading the manatee´s status from “endangered” to “threatened.” It´s an exercise at once ridiculous and seemingly pointless: The state´s listing of endangered and threatened species is largely symbolic. Most enforcement action is based on the federal Endangered Species Act, and federal officials have revealed no plans to reduce the protections given to manatees or other species.

In fact, the Marine Mammal Commission — the federal agency that oversees manatee conservation — is one of the many voices asking Florida officials to back off. The main target of the federal commission´s criticism: A flawed law that yanks the state´s conservation policy out of alignment with scientific fact and relocates it somewhere in Fantasyland.

Under the law — passed in 2000 — a species can´t be considered endangered unless its numbers are declining so rapidly that extinction is imminent. The bar is set so high that the state´s most endangered animals probably wouldn´t qualify. That includes the Florida panther, which is already on the brink of extinction, and the northern right whale, despite the fact that only 300 are left.

The law is simply stupid, and the commission has been dragging its heels about enforcing it. Petitions to downgrade two species — the manatee and the red-cockaded woodpecker — have been pending before the commission for more than a year.

Last month, the logjam broke when the commission agreed to down list the red-cockaded woodpecker. The sad thing was that only one commissioner — John D. Rood, a Jacksonville real-estate magnate — acknowledged the bad precedent that was being set. Rood´s attempt to delay the decision on the woodpecker died when no other commissioner would second it.

That´s bad news for the manatee, whose status comes up for a vote at the meeting scheduled Nov. 19-21. If commission members can defy logic and established science once, it´s not hard to imagine they´ll do it again.

Floridians should push state lawmakers to repair the law that created this situation in the first place. But that solution won´t come in time to prevent the commission from down-grading the manatee.

The only way to stop that potentially ghastly mistake is to convince commissioners that this decision should be delayed once again. If enough people protest to the commission, their voices will also reach to the state Capitol — demonstrating to lawmakers that their constituents don´t support the flawed law or the attempts to undermine the status of Florida´s beloved manatees.

Residents can e-mail members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission at Commissioners@fwc.state.fl.us or contact the commission at (850) 487-3796.

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