by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
City Council member Lynette Self says a federal Fish and Wildlife Service regulation restriction intending to reduce manatee deaths in Florida may do much more harm than good when it takes effect Sept. 1.
“It’s wrong,” said Self, who chairs the Jacksonville Waterways Commission. “Ten years ago we established proper zones in Duval County to help reduce the number of manatee deaths here. We even hired an expert to aide us in that research and, as a result, manatee death’s are going down. Now, this group wants to step in and do it their own way based on outdated data from 1974. It doesn’t make any sense and it’s ludicrous.”
According to Self, the Fish and Wildlife Service performed insufficient research regarding manatee migration and habitation patterns in Duval County before moving forward with its recommendations.
Reduced speed zones have been established in areas where manatees never come into contact with boaters and do little more than restrict recreational activities in the residential communities along the Eastbank, Self said.
“The area runs from Marker 73, which we don’t even have in Jacksonville, to the Hart Bridge,” said Self. “That should tell you how much they know about the area. The worst part is that they can’t even enforce it because most recreational water vehicles don’t have speedometers.”
Self added that police radar is unable to get accurate readings on smaller water vehicles that will hold up in court.
“What good is that supposed to do?” she asked. “In my opinion they’re just trying to avoid a lawsuit by adding what appears to be more restrictions, but this won’t save one manatee.”
Self said the Fish and Wildlife Service should be working more closely with local representatives.
“This is a classic case of taking away home rule,” said Self. They don’t know the area but they won’t listen to local influences either. They’re restricting areas where there are no manatees.”
And Self said the regulation’s negative impact will likely be long term if it isn’t amended or nullified.
“My fear is that in two or three years there will still be between one and three deaths a year and another lawsuit will come up,” she said. “When that happens, and it probably will, they’ll come back and want to add even more restrictions. If people here are concerned about this, they need to write to the Congressional delegation to let them know.”
Dave Henkla of the Fish and Wildlife Service said he recognizes the Waterways Commission’s dedication to manatee protection but denied any intention of cutting them out of the decision-making process.
“We understand that [the Waterways Commission] has worked hard for a long time and were making changes. Ideally, they would have had more time to show the progress they were making, but we were obligated by a court stipulation to move forward with our own recommendations,” said Henkla. “We took public comment for 60 days on all of the proposals in Jacksonville and we had great amount of input. I just think we have a disagreement over manatee protection in Duval County.”
Henkla denied the Fish and Wildlife Service based its recommendations on outdated materials.
“We got all of our information from what’s currently available from the State and locally,” he said, adding that any further regulation in the future was “purely speculative.”