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Guest column

Help save Rosie and other manatees before it's too late

By HELEN SPIVEY
Published December 5, 2005

Rosie the manatee currently lives in Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. I have long been Rosie's adoptive mom, along with thousands of other members of Save the Manatee Club's adoption program.

Rosie's life as a captive began when she was captured Sept. 12, 1978, as a young calf. She has been exhibited to the public in various amusement park type facilities ever since. Tragically Rosie was captured before Congress passed the Endangered Species Act protecting all manatees from ownership by anyone other than the American people and preventing an endangered species from being taken from the wild and held captive by anyone.

Why am I telling you this, you ask?

For years, I have been buying a Lotto ticket in the hopes of winning the Florida Lottery. If I won, I planned to offer a few million dollars to the current owner of Rosie, the state of Florida, to buy her and set her free.

Some knowledgeable scientists I know believe she can survive in the wild. She deserves to be free.

But before she could be released, given that I won the lottery, special legislation would have to be passed to also make Rosie an endangered species. If that didn't happen someone could capture her again and sell her to the highest bidder, and believe me the bid would be very high.

But now I am dropping my quest of buying Lotto tickets to try to free Rosie. Why, again you ask?

A few weeks ago, Congress quickly passed a bill by the House Resources Committee chairman, Rep. Richard Pombo of California, to remove the designation of critical habitat from the ESA.

Areas where manatees have to live in the winter and have prospered in small spots like Crystal River would no longer be protected from destruction as viable habitat by manatee protection laws.

Also tucked into the Pombo bill at the last moment, and you know how that goes, was an amendment by U.S. Rep. Adam Putnam, R-Brandon, to remove the additional protection of manatees as a marine mammal from the Federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The MMPA protects marine mammals from being taken from the wild, mammals such as whales, dolphins and manatees. The Putnam amendment would remove manatees from that protection.

I wonder why? Care to guess?

If the U.S. Senate passes the House Pombo bill, with Putnam's dastardly amendment, the only thing left protecting manatees would be an ESA that ignored their vital habitats and Florida's manatee protection as an endangered species.

Of course, Florida is in the process of taking that status away from the manatees, too. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will soon look at a plan they voted to have their staff develop on lowering the status on protection of manatees.

Why I wonder? Can you guess?

Suddenly and sadly, I realized that I cannot buy a ticket to free Rosie. If I win the lottery, she would be in greater danger, as well as all manatees, if these lawmakers are able to strip away protection from manatees by gutting these laws - and it looks like that will happen.

I am currently writing letters to Florida's Sens. Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission begging they not allow this to happen.

It looks like I stand a better chance of winning the Florida Lottery than stopping these horrid laws, but I never learned how to stop trying. If they are defeated, I will again be buying my Lotto ticket to set my Rosie free.

Care to join me, at least in writing letters?

--Helen L. Spivey of Homosassa is a former Crystal River City Council member and state House representative as well as a longtime wildlife advocate. She co-chairs, with Jimmy Buffett, the Save the Manatee Club. Guest columnists write their own views on subjects they choose, which do no necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.

[Last modified December 5, 2005, 03:00:29]