Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
CRAIG PITTMANThe bay area restrictions, which require further approval, aim to protect manatees.
TALLAHASSEE - State wildlife commissioners on Wednesday tentatively approved new restrictions around Tampa Bay designed to protect manatees and lift a federal freeze on new docks.
The new boating restrictions in Pinellas, Hillsborough and Manatee counties would not take effect until after two public hearings this summer and another vote by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission this fall.
In Pinellas, the new rules would establish a slow-speed zone near Safety Harbor from April 1 to Nov. 15, running from Courtney Campbell Parkway to the shoreline of Oldsmar.
Hillsborough would have a similar seasonal slow-speed zone along the northern edge of Courtney Campbell Parkway, while from Rocky Point south to the Gandy Bridge would be slow speed year-round.
In Apollo Beach the state would require a mix of slow speed and idle speed south of the Tampa Electric Co. power plant, and most of the Little Manatee River would be classified a 25-mph zone, with a slow-speed area near the river's mouth.
In Manatee County, the state is considering a variety of new zones, including a controversial slow-speed zone in the Braden River and a 500-foot-wide slow-speed zone on both sides of the Manatee River.
Not even the wildlife commissioners who voted for them are sure the Tampa Bay area needs boating restrictions. Aerial surveys of Tampa Bay have shown about 300 manatees living there year-round, with another 100 or so showing up in winter to huddle in the warm discharges around the area's power plants.
"The herd was doing pretty good," said Commissioner David Meehan of St. Petersburg.
Between 1976 and 2003, boats killed 68 manatees in Tampa Bay, nearly all of them in the past dozen years. Since 1990 the number of deaths in Tampa Bay attributed to boats has risen by more than 12 percent a year, a higher percentage than the manatee population's growth rate and higher than the increase in deaths from other causes, said Kipp Frohlich of the wildlife commission staff.
"Statistics, statistics," said Commissioner Richard Corbett of Tampa. "Frankly, in due deference to the staff, there are a lot of people who feel there are way too many manatees."
But federal officials are holding up permits for new docks in areas where they think manatees are not adequately protected. Those areas of inadequate protection include the shoreline of Old Tampa Bay in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties, as well as much of Manatee County. Federal wildlife officials say they are bound by a law that forbids harming a single manatee.
The permitting freeze has stymied home builders such as Michael Willenbacher of Rottlund Homes, whose company has spent $4-million building a waterfront townhome project in Hillsborough but cannot build 64 docks the company says are needed to attract buyers.
The freeze has Manatee County officials so upset they asked U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris, R-Sarasota, to convene a meeting with federal wildlife officials in Washington, D.C., last month. But the freeze remains until new manatee measures are in place.
"The feds are holding this over our heads to bring the counties to the table," said Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto, and "developers are beating down my door" to fix the problem.
Commission staffers said they hope to hold two public hearings, one in Tampa and one in Bradenton, sometime in June. Then the commission would vote on the new rules in September.
A committee last year reviewed a previous set of proposed rules for Tampa Bay and, after a raucous public hearing that drew 300 angry people, voted to recommend against nearly all of them.