MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1991 



funding be no lower than $583,000 and $598,000, 

 respectively, and that funding for management work 

 be at least $315,000 and $327,000, respectively. 



Late in 1990, the Service received a special Con- 

 gressional appropriation for additional work on 

 manatees and other endangered species. It was not 

 clear how much of that special appropriation would be 

 used for manatee work. Therefore, on 20 November 

 1990, the Commission wrote to the Service asking for 

 information on immediate and longer term funding 

 plans. The Service replied by letters of 12 March and 

 20 May 1991. The letters indicated that the Service 

 planned to support manatee work in 1991 and 1992 at 

 levels that would exceed the minimum levels identified 

 in the Commission's 2 March 1990 letter. The 

 Service further expressed an intent to fund research 

 and management needs after 1992 at levels compara- 

 ble to those in the Commission's letter. 



Among other things, the Service's strong support 

 for manatee work in 1991 enabled it to hire two 

 additional staff members to help review permit appli- 

 cations for shoreline construction projects and to 

 otherwise help implement the revised manatee recov- 

 ery plan. It also allowed the research staff to develop 

 and implement an expanded satellite tagging and 

 tracking program to generate accurate information on 

 manatee movement and habitat use patterns. Such 

 information is essential for directing efforts to develop 

 site-specific boat speed regulations, to assess shoreline 

 development proposals, and to guide land acquisition 

 plans. The Service also was then able to increase its 

 efforts to study manatee population dynamics, ecolo- 

 gy, and life history. 



As described in this and previous Armual Reports, 

 the Marine Mammal Commission also increased its 

 efforts in support of the revised recovery plan. 

 Among other things, it provided funds to the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service to purchase additional satellite-linked 

 tags for tracking manatee movements, provided partial 

 support for a study to develop and apply techniques to 

 estimate the age of salvaged manatees based on bone 

 samples, helped fund a study of energetics require- 

 ments and thermal tolerances of lactating females and 

 their calves, and increased efforts to review and 



comment on research and management activities by 

 State and Federal agencies. 



Other agencies also have increased their effort to 

 address critical issues. A particularly good example 

 in this regard is the Navy's efforts to install propeller 

 shrouds on its tug boats at the Kings Bay Naval Base 

 in southern Georgia. Following the death of a few 

 manatees that apparently were killed by the large 

 propellers of the Base's tugs in 1989, the Navy, in 

 consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service, 

 promptly began engineering studies to design a 

 propeller guard to prevent animals from coming into 

 contact with the propeller blades. The designs were 

 tested and found satisfactory in 1991 and efforts are 

 now proceeding to install shrouds on all large tugs at 

 the Base. 



Status of Boat Speed Regulatory Zones — The 



dark, turbid waters in which manatees live make 

 spotting manatees from boats extremely difficult even 

 for trained observers. Expecting operators of speed- 

 ing boats to spot and avoid hitting manatees is there- 

 fore unrealistic. The only effective ways to reduce 

 collisions between manatees and boats, therefore, are 

 by: (1) slowing boats down in areas where manatees 

 are likely to occur to afford animals a chance to avoid 

 oncoming vessels, and (2) excluding boats from core 

 areas with exceptionally dense concentrations of 

 animals. 



Because of the extensive movements of manatees 

 throughout Florida and the lack of speed restrictions 

 along most of the State waterway system, slowing 

 boats down over an area wide enough to provide 

 effective protection requires imposing new speed 

 restrictions for a substantial part of the State's water- 

 ways. Doing so, however, increases travel time for 

 many boaters. Public acceptance of and compliance 

 with new speed rules therefore requires a major 

 change in the conduct of boat operators. Even more 

 basic, they require a change in attitudes regarding 

 responsible behavior on public waterways. 



Although such factors underscore the difficulty and 

 magnitude of efforts to implement an effective boat 

 speed regulatory system to protect manatees, the 

 Florida Governor and Cabinet members recognized 



