overtime pay for enforcement efforts by Florida Marine Patrol 

 officers; and amending the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act to 

 clarify authority to regulate boat speeds and protect manatee 

 feeding areas. 



In mid-August 1989, the Department began a series of public 

 meetings to solicit comments on its draft recommendations. A 

 representative of the Commission participated in the first of 

 those meetings and provided preliminary comments. Among other 

 things, it was noted that the scope of the Department's proposed 

 response seemed appropriate given the complexity and scale of the 

 problem. By letter of 11 September, the Commission sent the 

 Department more detailed comments. 



In its letter, the Commission noted that the disturbance, 

 injury, and death of animals by boats and habitat destruction due 

 to development in and adjacent to essential manatee habitat were 

 the two principal threats to manatees. It also expressed the 

 view that the proposed actions would help address both problems 

 by controlling boat speeds in areas used heavily by manatees and 

 by steering development of new marinas to areas least important 

 to manatees. The Commission noted that these were the only 

 approaches with a reasonable chance of reducing the probability 

 of collisions between manatees and boats and, therefore, it 

 expressed strong support for the draft proposals. 



With respect to the proposed non-channel speed zone in the 

 12 counties particularly important to manatees, the Commission 

 noted that the proposal was an appropriate interim measure. 

 However, it remained concerned that manatees would still be 

 unable to avoid boats travelling at the proposed 20 MPH speed 

 limit in shallow non-channel areas where they could not dive 

 beneath oncoming boats. Thus, it noted in its letter that, in 

 the long-run, replacement of the interim non-channel speed zone 

 with a more extensive network of site-specific slow speed zones 

 in the areas where manatees were most likely to be hit by boats 

 would provide manatees more protection and be less burdensome on 

 boaters. It was the Commission's understanding that such a 

 network would be considered and developed during the preparation 

 of county manatee protection plans, whose provisions would 

 eventually supersede the interim measures. 



With respect to the four new boat speed zones, three were 

 located along the east coast of Florida. All three areas were 

 recommended for establishment as slow and/or idle speed zones in 

 the Commission's 1988 report on east coast manatee habitat 

 protection. In its 11 September letter, the Commission expressed 

 strong support for their designation. It noted, however, that 

 its 1988 report recommended establishing many other new speed 

 zones and that it understood those areas would be considered when 

 county manatee protection plans were prepared. In this regard, 

 the Commission's 1988 report recommended that the existing system 



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