Manatees may lose protection, protectors

A state agency may cut waterway enforcement officers.

By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published August 31, 2007

A computer model produced for a U.S. Geological Survey study earlier this year shows a 50 percent chance that the current statewide manatee population of about 3,000 could dwindle over the next 50 years to just 500 on either coast.
	[Times photo: Douglas R. Clifford]

The state agency set to remove manatees from the endangered list plans to slash 90 positions from the division that enforces the boating speed zones designed to protect manatees.

Manatee patrols would be just one casualty of severe cuts to the law enforcement staff of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Wildlife officers also search for missing boaters, arrest poachers, stop speeders driving through panther habitat and ticket anglers who violate fishing rules.

If the cuts are approved, "Frankly, we wouldn't do all that we do now," said Lt. Col. Jim McCallister of the wildlife agency.

A study last year found the agency's law enforcement division was severely understaffed.

"The loss of these positions would be detrimental to the mission of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission," the commission staff noted in recommending the cutbacks. "The reduction would result in reduced high-visibility patrols in manatee areas ... and popular boating and fishing areas."

"Not good," said Dave Hankla, head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Jacksonville. The federal agency cannot replace the lost state wildlife officers on manatee patrols, he said. There are only 13 federal law enforcement agents in Florida.

Yet the state's proposed management plan for manatees -- which would take effect when they are taken off the endangered list -- calls for improving the enforcement of boating speed zones to preserve current protections.

Over the past year the wildlife agency's 700 officers issued more than 37,000 citations, 2,790 of them given to boaters for violating the rules in manatee zones. They rescued 1,051 people.

In 2006 they spent more than 50,000 hours patrolling the state's waterways enforcing manatee protection rules. During that time, the number of boats registered in Florida topped 1-million.

Despite the agency's patrols, 86 manatees were killed by boats in 2006, the second highest number since the agency began keeping statistics in the 1970s. As of July 31, boats had killed 48 manatees this year.

The idea that the state agency would cut its patrols while dropping manatees from the endangered list is "pathetic," said Helen Spivey, state co-chair of the Save the Manatee Club.

"It would be awful if those positions were lost," said Ted Forsgren of the Coastal Conservation Association of Florida, a recreational fishing group that has taken the lead in pushing for manatees to be taken off the endangered list.

A computer model produced for a U.S. Geological Survey study earlier this year shows a 50 percent chance that the current statewide manatee population of about 3,000 could dwindle over the next 50 years to just 500 on either coast.

However, because the state wildlife agency changed its definition of what constitutes "endangered," manatees no longer fit that classification. At a Sept. 12 meeting in St. Petersburg, the wildlife commission is slated to vote to take them off the endangered list and instead classify them as "threatened." The commission's vote on the budget cuts is scheduled for Sept. 14.

State wildlife officials have said that giving manatees a lower designation will not lead to less protection for the animals because they are also adopting their first-ever plan to manage the species. The goals include to: "Reduce human-caused annual manatee mortality rate by minimizing human-related threats, including those attributed to watercraft."

A study by the International Association of Chiefs of Police last year found that the state agency needs at least 1,000 wildlife officers to do its job properly. The association said that the ideal number would be 1,500 to 2,000 - more than double the number now on the job.

But a billion-dollar budget shortfall has led Gov. Charlie Crist to order every state agency to propose a 10 percent cut in their own funding. State legislators will meet in special session beginning Sept. 18 to determine the necessary cuts.

The wildlife commission has 1,875 full-time employees to protect and manage more than 500 species of fish and wildlife. Last year its budget topped $261-million. The commission's staff has recommended cutting $4-million from its $86-million law enforcement budget, eliminating 90 officers.

Kipp Frohlich, who was in charge of writing the state's management plan for manatees, said cutting the patrols would not change the plan. But he said it would probably delay entirely removing manatees from the state's list of protected species.

In addition to curtailing its law enforcement patrols, the wildlife agency also has proposed cutting a $2-million program that rescues and rehabilitates injured manatees at Lowry Park Zoo, Sea World and the Miami Seaquarium. That would "dramatically reduce or eliminate ... options to rescue and rehabilitate injured manatees," the staff noted.

Times staff writer Barbara Behrendt contributed to this report.

[Last modified August 31, 2007, 00:27:39]