MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1991 



a solid basis for securing long-term habitat protection 

 for Blue Spring manatees. 



Acquisitions Elsewhere in Florida: Still other 

 acquisition projects important to manatees are on the 

 State's Conservation and Recreation Lands priority 

 list. These include: Sebastian Creek (3,776 acres) 

 and Spruce Creek (1,790 acres), both of which are 

 manatee feeding and resting areas and freshwater 

 sources along the east coast manatee travel corridor; 

 Rookery Bay (44,846 acres), which is a manatee 

 feeding, resting, and mating area in southwest Flori- 

 da; and Dunns Creek (8,9(X) acres), a travel corridor 

 and a feeding and resting area connecting Crescent 

 Lake and the St. Johns River. During 1991, the State 

 completed acquisition of the Seabranch project (939 

 acres), which includes more than a mile of shoreline 

 along a critical segment of the east coast manatee 

 travel corridor north of Hobe Sound. 



Permit Reviews — Each year, public and private 

 interests submit many hundreds of requests to Federal 

 and State agencies for permission to develop or hold 

 events in public waterways. Most of these requests 

 are for dredge and fill permits from the Corps of 

 Engineers and the Florida Department of Environmen- 

 tal Regulation. Many requests also are filed with the 

 Coast Guard for permission to hold events such as 

 boat races or waterskiing contests. The Fish and 

 Wildlife Service and the Florida Department of 

 Natural Resources' Office of Protected Species 

 Management review and comment to the responsible 

 permitting agency on such permit applications when 

 they may affect manatees. 



For example, under authority of the Fish and 

 Wildlife Coordination Act and the Endangered Species 

 Act, the Service reviews many hundreds of permit 

 applications to the Army Corps of Engineers for 

 dredge and fill projects in manatee habitat. Each 

 application must be examined individually to assess 

 the potential impact of construction work, as well as 

 completed projects, on manatees and their habitat. 

 For those that may affect manatees, formal consulta- 

 tions with the permitting agency must be undertaken. 

 As part of this process, recommendations for permit 

 conditions to mitigate or avoid possible effects must 



be provided and meetings with permit applicants may 

 be scheduled. 



Because of the broad distribution of manatees in 

 Florida and the number of projects proposed in 

 manatee habitat, the review process is demanding. 

 Based on reviews of the hundreds of permit applica- 

 tion notices circulated by the Corps of Engineers 

 annually, the Service has initiated consultations on an 

 average of nearly 200 applications per year in recent 

 years. These manatee-related consultations have 

 produced more jeopardy opinions {i.e., projects 

 judged to be unacceptable because of risks to the 

 species) than for all other listed endangered species in 

 the United States combined. Comparable review 

 efforts have been undertaken at the State level by the 

 State's Office of Protected Species Management. 



As noted above, the Commission recommended 

 that the Service increase funding and staff to address 

 permit review needs. In 1991, the Service did so. To 

 help speed and improve reviews, the Commission also 

 has urged accelerating work on a geographic informa- 

 tion system to facilitate access and retrieval of site- 

 specific manatee related information needed for 

 reviewing permits (see Appendix C, Reynolds and 

 Haddad 1990). The Florida Department of Natural 

 Resources, in cooperation with the Service, has taken 

 the lead in addressing this need. Despite these 

 efforts, the incremental effect of approved projects is 

 a source of serious concern. 



Conclusions 



Over the past three years, manatee recovery efforts 

 have been redoubled. This is thanks largely to the 

 efforts of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida 

 Legislature, the Florida Governor and Cabinet, and 

 the Florida Department of Natural Resources. They 

 are now at a point where they have a reasonable 

 chance of being effective, provided efforts to see them 

 through are continued vigorously. Because of the 

 scope of what remains to be done, however, it will be 

 several years before all management components can 

 be put in place, tested, and refined as necessary. 



In the interim, Florida manatees remain at serious 

 risk. Their future will depend on the ability of 



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