Tampabay: Complaints against dock rules pile up

Complaints against dock rules pile up

The new rules limiting dock-building won't save manatees, but will ruin businesses and lower property values, say opponents of the measure.

By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer

TAMPA -- Fishing guides, marine contractors and waterfront homeowners turned out Tuesday night to complain about new federal manatee-protection rules that will curtail dock-building throughout southwest Florida.

About 250 people showed up in Tampa for the second in a series of public hearings the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is holding around the state on the proposed new rules. It was far fewer than the 3,000 who showed up for the raucous first hearing in Fort Myers on Monday.

At both hearings, there were people wearing T-shirts that said, "Stop the Manatee Insanity" and toting signs that proclaimed, "Docks Don't Kill Manatees."

And at both hearings, people complained that the new rules would not really save manatees and instead would ruin businesses and lower property values. Many expressed frustration with the federal government and with the environmental groups that had pushed for greater manatee protection.

"You should turn this issue over to the newly created Homeland Security Department because gentlemen, this is terrorism at its worst," contended William Caldwell of Apollo Beach, vice president of High Tide Sales.

Federal wildlife officials announced last month that they intend to clamp down on permits for new docks, marinas and boat ramps from Pasco County south to the state's southern tip. They expect that to limit the number of boats in areas where manatees congregate. Their goal is to cut the number of manatee deaths caused by speeding boats, which as of the end of November had hit a record high of 91 deaths.

In the rest of the state, the scrutiny given to permits would not be as strict because the manatee population everywhere else appears to be stable or improving. But the population in southwest Florida, which includes nearly half the manatees in the state, does not appear to be doing as well and thus requires greater protection from boats, federal wildlife officials say.

So new dock permit applications in southwest Florida should be subjected to closer scrutiny, and perhaps 37 percent of them would be turned down, federal officials said. They predict those rejections would depress property values, limit boater access to the water and cost more than 200 jobs over the next five years. The economic impact would be up to $43-million a year, they said.

Several speakers at the Tampa hearing, including Tallahassee lobbyist Wade Hopping, contended that the estimate is far too low for the potential loss to the state's economy. Among alternative ideas, Hopping suggested capturing every manatee and implanting a device that would alert boaters to their presence before they are hit.

Another imaginative suggestion came from avid scuba diver Norman Linton of St. Petersburg, who said he had heard manatees are "an excellent source of protein and delicious to boot." So, he asked, why not legalize manatee farms and require part of each "crop" be released to the wild?

"Manatee burgers, anyone?" he asked amid gales of laughter.

But environmental activist Joe Murphy said he would rather eat developers: "There are more of them and they cause more problems."

Despite that exchange, the Tampa hearing seemed sedate compared to the one in Fort Myers, where anyone who said anything remotely complimentary about the federal effort to protect manatees was jeered and told, "Go hug a tree!"

At that hearing, Cape Coral resident Jerry Geyer said the regulations were so ludicrous that they were "proof that the Three Stooges and the Wicked Witch of the North got together and had offspring."

Almost all of the people who spoke against the regulations were under the impression that the new rules would impose a total moratorium on new docks, even though federal wildlife officials have said they would probably still approve most permit requests.

Among those who spoke against the regulations at the Fort Myers hearing were state Rep. Lindsay Harrington, R-Punta Gorda, recently chosen House speaker pro tempore, as well as a number of local officials, including Lee County Commissioner Andy Coy. Coy said blocking boat docks in Lee County is "like outlawing cabins in North Carolina, basketball in Indiana and Mickey Mouse in Orlando."

The next hearing will be in Melbourne tonight, followed by hearings in Daytona Beach, Palatka, Gainesville and Fort Lauderdale. Written comments can be sent to the agency until Jan. 10, and a final decision is slated for May.