H2Andy
Contributor
apparently, the wildlife people didn't put up their usual signs
during the holiday weekend.
here's the link:
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/06/08/Citrus/Manatee_killing_may_b.shtml
here's the story:
Manatee killing may be on film
By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published June 8, 2004
CRYSTAL RIVER - Julio Carrion brought his family from Kissimmee to Manatee Tour and Dive in Crystal River, whose motto is "Where man and manatee play."
They rented a pontoon boat to enjoy the sun and see the endangered creatures in their natural habitat on Kings Bay during Memorial Day weekend.
It turned out that they may have witnessed the uglier side of the man-manatee relationship.
They filmed a boat suspected of ramming and killing a manatee, which has sparked wildlife advocates and others to angrily ask why the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission didn't post special, slow boating speed limits on the bay, as they historically have during high-traffic holidays.
"The fish and wildlife commission chose not to do that this year," said Mark Lowe, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park veterinarian, who estimated that there are generally only about 15 manatees living in the bay. "That's very bothersome to me."
Others who complained said it was fortunate a scuba diver or swimmer wasn't killed.
Carrion, an attorney, and his wife, Vanessa, and children, Julio, 16, Roberto, 12, and Gabriella, 8, were idling near a group of four or five manatees when they noticed a 21- to 23-foot white powerboat approaching.
They yelled and waved their arms trying to tell the boater to slow, but the driver under the green bimini top didn't hear them.
They watched as a manatee surfaced for air before the boat struck the same spot.
"Boom," Carrion said, "you could hear the impact." Then, the horrified family watched the manatee's tail float into the air before the animal slid into the churning white waves left by the powerboat's wake.
Carrion said he couldn't understand why the boat sped through an area where manatees were at play.
"It should honestly be completely idle," he said. "You should not make wake. Unfortunately, there's controversy about that with boaters. But there should be balance in life. We need better protection for the animals - otherwise why am I going to go there again if there are no manatees?"
The body of a manatee was found by state wildlife workers after Memorial Day weekend. Alexander Costidis, marine mammal biologist with the Marine Mammal Pathology Laboratory in St. Petersburg, said it was a female that weighed 462 pounds. A necropsy showed that the animal suffered three broken and dislocated ribs and a lung cavity filled by blood.
"Cause of death went down as a watercraft collision," he said. "It was impact trauma."
He said the manatee appears to have been struck by the lower part of a boat's engine or a boat's skeg, keel or rudder areas.
The incident is being investigated, state fish and wildlife Capt. John Burton said, and Carrion's tape is being reviewed as evidence. He would not comment further on the investigation.
He did, however, acknowledge that Memorial Day weekend was the first holiday weekend in about a decade that speed limits on Kings Bay were not lowered from 25 mph to idle or slow speed.
For years, he said, fish and wildlife followed a precedent set by the U.S. Coast Guard, which for one year in the 1990s decided to lower speeds on its waters during holidays.
"It was not related to manatees at all," Burton said, but was for boating safety. The policy was verbal and was never stamped into law, he said.
Last year, a company that fish and wildlife hired to post the temporary signs declined to take the job, and finding a replacement became too expensive. So, Burton said, fish and wildlife asked Crystal River officials to pass an ordinance on holiday speeds.
Fish and wildlife, Burton said, offered to donate the temporary speed limit signs to the city, whose Police Department would post them on the waters.
"That was last summer," Burton said, "and to date we have not received any notice from the city."
However, in July 2003, the Crystal River City Council passed a motion authorizing the city attorney to draft the ordinance.
But on Feb. 3, 2004, City Attorney David LaCroix wrote council members a memo saying he had several concerns about that directive.
He said the county, which has jurisdiction in much of the bay, needed to pass a similar ordinance to make enforcement work. Because fish and wildlife didn't have a law backing up their policy in the first place, state officers were citing speeding boats with "reckless" or "careless" infractions over the years. They, he said, could continue to do so without posting the signs.
In an interview Monday, LaCroix added that he worried that the city's Police Department was too small to enforce a speed limit in the bay.
The city's marine unit essentially consists of one boat.
LaCroix said he also saw the fish and wildlife request as another state responsibility on state waterways being shoved off onto small local governments.
"There were lots of reasons the City Council chose not to do it," LaCroix said, "and lots of reasons we saw the state foisting off their responsibilities on us. They're not the only agency in the state that has budget problems."
Most important, LaCroix said, he was told by a fish and wildlife law enforcement planner earlier this year that the agency no longer had budget problems.
"They told us that they would be able to post them," City Manager Susan Boyer added.
Although city officials and council members thought fish and wildlife would handle the posting responsibilities again this year, council member Susan Kirk said, it doesn't appear fish and wildlife got the same message, according to an April e-mail message she obtained from a fish and wildlife law enforcement planner.
Regardless of who was at fault, Kirk said, she was upset that reducing the speed limit during the holiday fell through the cracks.
"I'm very disappointed and very concerned at the fact that the council had wanted idle speed (limits) in the bay for the major three holidays, and we were told it was going to happen and did not," she said.
Despite perceptions that rules on the bay were lax Memorial Day weekend, Burton said, as many as five fish and wildlife boats, a Crystal River police boat and other agencies patrolled the bay in force, making sure boaters and divers were safe.
However, according to local fish and wildlife spokeswoman Karen Parker, a personal watercraft and a johnboat collided in the bay May 30, resulting in a 43-year-old man suffering a broken pelvis. The accident remains under investigation but took place in an area where the speed limit was not designated as idle.
No other incidents were reported, except for the manatee's death, which affects Charlie Slider's tourist-dependent Manatee Tour and Dive Shop business.
Lower speed limits, he said, might have prevented it.
"It could have been by lowering the speeds," Slider said. "We're lucky it was not a person out there."
- Times staff writer Jorge Sanchez contributed to this report. Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com
during the holiday weekend.
here's the link:
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/06/08/Citrus/Manatee_killing_may_b.shtml
here's the story:
Manatee killing may be on film
By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published June 8, 2004
CRYSTAL RIVER - Julio Carrion brought his family from Kissimmee to Manatee Tour and Dive in Crystal River, whose motto is "Where man and manatee play."
They rented a pontoon boat to enjoy the sun and see the endangered creatures in their natural habitat on Kings Bay during Memorial Day weekend.
It turned out that they may have witnessed the uglier side of the man-manatee relationship.
They filmed a boat suspected of ramming and killing a manatee, which has sparked wildlife advocates and others to angrily ask why the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission didn't post special, slow boating speed limits on the bay, as they historically have during high-traffic holidays.
"The fish and wildlife commission chose not to do that this year," said Mark Lowe, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park veterinarian, who estimated that there are generally only about 15 manatees living in the bay. "That's very bothersome to me."
Others who complained said it was fortunate a scuba diver or swimmer wasn't killed.
Carrion, an attorney, and his wife, Vanessa, and children, Julio, 16, Roberto, 12, and Gabriella, 8, were idling near a group of four or five manatees when they noticed a 21- to 23-foot white powerboat approaching.
They yelled and waved their arms trying to tell the boater to slow, but the driver under the green bimini top didn't hear them.
They watched as a manatee surfaced for air before the boat struck the same spot.
"Boom," Carrion said, "you could hear the impact." Then, the horrified family watched the manatee's tail float into the air before the animal slid into the churning white waves left by the powerboat's wake.
Carrion said he couldn't understand why the boat sped through an area where manatees were at play.
"It should honestly be completely idle," he said. "You should not make wake. Unfortunately, there's controversy about that with boaters. But there should be balance in life. We need better protection for the animals - otherwise why am I going to go there again if there are no manatees?"
The body of a manatee was found by state wildlife workers after Memorial Day weekend. Alexander Costidis, marine mammal biologist with the Marine Mammal Pathology Laboratory in St. Petersburg, said it was a female that weighed 462 pounds. A necropsy showed that the animal suffered three broken and dislocated ribs and a lung cavity filled by blood.
"Cause of death went down as a watercraft collision," he said. "It was impact trauma."
He said the manatee appears to have been struck by the lower part of a boat's engine or a boat's skeg, keel or rudder areas.
The incident is being investigated, state fish and wildlife Capt. John Burton said, and Carrion's tape is being reviewed as evidence. He would not comment further on the investigation.
He did, however, acknowledge that Memorial Day weekend was the first holiday weekend in about a decade that speed limits on Kings Bay were not lowered from 25 mph to idle or slow speed.
For years, he said, fish and wildlife followed a precedent set by the U.S. Coast Guard, which for one year in the 1990s decided to lower speeds on its waters during holidays.
"It was not related to manatees at all," Burton said, but was for boating safety. The policy was verbal and was never stamped into law, he said.
Last year, a company that fish and wildlife hired to post the temporary signs declined to take the job, and finding a replacement became too expensive. So, Burton said, fish and wildlife asked Crystal River officials to pass an ordinance on holiday speeds.
Fish and wildlife, Burton said, offered to donate the temporary speed limit signs to the city, whose Police Department would post them on the waters.
"That was last summer," Burton said, "and to date we have not received any notice from the city."
However, in July 2003, the Crystal River City Council passed a motion authorizing the city attorney to draft the ordinance.
But on Feb. 3, 2004, City Attorney David LaCroix wrote council members a memo saying he had several concerns about that directive.
He said the county, which has jurisdiction in much of the bay, needed to pass a similar ordinance to make enforcement work. Because fish and wildlife didn't have a law backing up their policy in the first place, state officers were citing speeding boats with "reckless" or "careless" infractions over the years. They, he said, could continue to do so without posting the signs.
In an interview Monday, LaCroix added that he worried that the city's Police Department was too small to enforce a speed limit in the bay.
The city's marine unit essentially consists of one boat.
LaCroix said he also saw the fish and wildlife request as another state responsibility on state waterways being shoved off onto small local governments.
"There were lots of reasons the City Council chose not to do it," LaCroix said, "and lots of reasons we saw the state foisting off their responsibilities on us. They're not the only agency in the state that has budget problems."
Most important, LaCroix said, he was told by a fish and wildlife law enforcement planner earlier this year that the agency no longer had budget problems.
"They told us that they would be able to post them," City Manager Susan Boyer added.
Although city officials and council members thought fish and wildlife would handle the posting responsibilities again this year, council member Susan Kirk said, it doesn't appear fish and wildlife got the same message, according to an April e-mail message she obtained from a fish and wildlife law enforcement planner.
Regardless of who was at fault, Kirk said, she was upset that reducing the speed limit during the holiday fell through the cracks.
"I'm very disappointed and very concerned at the fact that the council had wanted idle speed (limits) in the bay for the major three holidays, and we were told it was going to happen and did not," she said.
Despite perceptions that rules on the bay were lax Memorial Day weekend, Burton said, as many as five fish and wildlife boats, a Crystal River police boat and other agencies patrolled the bay in force, making sure boaters and divers were safe.
However, according to local fish and wildlife spokeswoman Karen Parker, a personal watercraft and a johnboat collided in the bay May 30, resulting in a 43-year-old man suffering a broken pelvis. The accident remains under investigation but took place in an area where the speed limit was not designated as idle.
No other incidents were reported, except for the manatee's death, which affects Charlie Slider's tourist-dependent Manatee Tour and Dive Shop business.
Lower speed limits, he said, might have prevented it.
"It could have been by lowering the speeds," Slider said. "We're lucky it was not a person out there."
- Times staff writer Jorge Sanchez contributed to this report. Justin George can be reached at 352 860-7309 or jgeorge@sptimes.com
