Federal judge hands down order for new manatee protections

After a record last year for manatee deaths, steps by the federal government to lower the number of manatees killed in Florida were ordered to continue.

©Associated Press
March 20, 2003

The Interior Department must continue creating new protections for the Florida manatee, including slow zones for powerboats in the Caloosahatchee River, a federal judge ruled.

Last year, 95 manatees were killed by boats in Florida waters, a record, and that is one reason environmental groups, led by Florida's Save the Manatee Club, have pursued federal help. The Interior Department is in the process of designating new slow zones for Florida waterways, including the Caloosahatchee, and manatee sanctuaries.

Such steps will continue under an order issued Tuesday in Washington, D.C., by U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan approving an agreement between the Interior Department and the coalition of environmental groups.

Sullivan also withdrew an order threatening Interior Secretary Gale Norton and other agency officials with contempt of court for failing to honor a 3-year-old agreement with environmentalists to protect Florida manatees.

Eric Glitzenstein, an attorney representing the Save the Manatee Club, credited the Interior Department for adopting "a new attitude" about manatee safety.

Virginia Albrecht, representing four marine industry groups, argued that the federal government shouldn't impose new regulations on boaters when local municipalities are developing ways to reduce the danger to manatees.

But Sullivan said his order will be subject to a public comment period to begin after the rule is published this month. The order would establish three new protection areas where powerboats would either be banned or have to reduce speed.

"You can make these very same compelling arguments at the appropriate time," Sullivan said. "Your arguments are not insignificant."

Officials representing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who opposed federal manatee protections, and others have met privately to discuss delaying new speed zones and sanctuaries.

Bush and others claim federal manatee protections will have a severe economic effect on southwest Florida because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has singled out the region -- an area of high manatee mortality -- for special restrictions that include tighter controls on dock building.

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