Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
CRAIG PITTMANHowever, most of the people in attendance supported proposals intended to protect manatees in Tampa Bay.
TAMPA - The first of two public hearings on proposed boat speed zones in Tampa Bay drew just 37 people from as far away as Lutz and Largo on Tuesday night, and nearly all of the speakers said they support the proposals.
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which is holding the two hearings on the proposed zones, is scheduled to vote on them in September.
The zones, proposed by biologists from the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, are supposed to protect the 350 or so manatees that call Tampa Bay home, and the 100 or so more that join them during cold weather.
Since 1974, more than 250 manatees have turned up dead in Tampa Bay, with more than 60 of those deaths caused by boats.
Under a legal settlement with environmental groups three years ago, the wildlife agency has promised to consider new regulations to slow down Tampa Bay's boaters, but has not promised to approve anything.
In Pinellas County, the commission's staff is recommending a slow speed zone from April 1 to Nov. 15 from the Courtney Campbell Parkway north to the Oldsmar area.
The commission is considering more extensive regulations in Hillsborough County: a slow speed zone from Rocky Point to the Gandy Bridge; a seasonal slow speed zone from April 1 to Nov. 15 from Rocky Point along the north side of the Courtney Campbell to Rocky Creek; a 25-mph zone in the Little Manatee River and a slow speed zone on the north side of its mouth; and a slow speed zone in Apollo Beach at the Big Bend power plant.
Making boaters slow down in those areas "is a minor inconvenience," said Suzanne Tarr of the Save the Manatee Club.
Some speakers said there should be regulations in Cockroach Bay and around Snell Isle, too, because they have seen so many manatees there.
But Deny Cooper, who for 14 years has run the water sports concession at the Days Inn in Rocky Point, fretted that if the new regulations pass, "I'll be out of business." He said he had "never really encountered any manatees there."
And Phil Walters of Tampa, representing the Florida Airboat Association, said, "We're basically against any new restrictions" and questioned whether manatees are really deserving of protection.
State officials and environmental activists predict a second hearing scheduled for 6 tonight in Palmetto is likely to be more contentious. A hearing there last year drew 300 shouting, complaining, sign-toting participants, most of them opposed to any new regulations.
The Tampa Bay rules are the first to be proposed under a new state law that requires all new regulations concerning manatees to be reviewed by a local committee made up of boaters, environmentalists and other interests before the state wildlife commission votes on them.