Manatee groups say Bush welshed

TALLAHASSEE- Two years ago, Gov. Jeb Bush thrilled environmentalists when he promised to beef up protection for manatees. He even called the endangered species "my favorite mammal."

But now, wildlife advocacy groups say the governor has failed to deliver. The groups say Bush promised to add more law enforcement officers to keep speeding boaters from hitting manatees, but hasn't done so. In fact, Florida has fewer such officers than it did four years ago, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

"We think the governor should have made sure there were more law enforcement officers," said Pat Rose of the Save the Manatee Club.

This year, a record 84 manatees have been killed in Florida waterways. Some of those deaths might have been prevented if the state had put more effort into it, the wildlife groups say.

Florida has an estimated 3,276 manatees left, according to the state.

On Thursday, three groups -- the Defenders of Wildlife, the Humane Society of the United States and the Wildlife Advocacy Project -- held a news conference to blast Bush. To illustrate their point, they piled on the lectern and on the floor 174 stuffed manatees -- the number they say have been killed since Bush held a "Manatee Summit" two years ago.

Bush convened the daylong summit because he was bothered that Florida kept approving boat slips in counties that hadn't written state-required manatee protection plans. Few of the initiatives discussed at the summit have come to pass, the groups say.

The groups' complaints mirror those of other environmentalists during this campaign season: They say that Bush says the right things when it comes to the environment, but doesn't follow through.

Bush said Thursday that his administration has been working to protect manatees, but constantly gets criticized from both boaters' rights and manatee advocacy groups.

"It's really amazing," Bush said, contending that he always has labored "to find the middle ground" between the two extremes.

"We're not getting recognition for our efforts," he said.

The only three environmental groups that make political endorsements -- the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club and the Florida Consumer Action Network -- endorsed Bush's Democratic challenger Bill McBride .

Yet, the manatee activists acknowledged that Bush did spotlight the manatee issue and that more counties have worked to finish their manatee protection plans.

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