The recent hysteria over manatees is also a problem for waterfront
homeowners because most waterfront homeowners are boaters too.

Waterfront home neighborhoods already have no wake zones. If
speedboats and jet skis violate those rules, the homeowners have a
right to be upset. Just like noisy cars and motorycyles zooming up
and down the street are annoying.

Manatee fanatics aren't rallying for more wake protection near fancy
houses, they want no speed zones *everywhere*. And manatees are
*everywhere* in Tampa Bay in the winter time. No shortage here at
all.

Manatees do not swim in less than 3 feet of water and boaters quickly
learn where they are most likely to be: in warm, deep water with lots
of grass. We learn to avoid them.

But the fanatics got their way in Tampa Bay and the result is this: at
the 4 foot deep contour near shore, 3 foot tall 8" diameter no wake
buoys are anchored every 100 ' or so. The buoys are meant to restrict
boaters to no wake within the marked area. Which may be 1/2 mile or
more from shore (shallow flats) and are encountered on the way to
mangrove shoreline fishing grounds.

So we're prevented from getting to the fishing spots in a reasonable
amount of time.

Here's the catch: there's little to no enforcement on Tampa Bay and
less maintenance of navigational aids - like these buoys. The result:
after a couple of years, these buoys are now coated with oysters which
have reduced their effective height above the waterline to about 6".
Which makes them almost impossible to see in some situations. That
makes them hazards to navigation.

$.02.


On Thu, 20 Nov 2003 22:00:25 -0500, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 02:33:20 GMT, "Capt. Frank Hopkins"
wrote:
I for one resent being denied the use of large portions
of "my" river by a group of people that 1. doesn't live here. 2. Doesn't
have a clue as to the true census of Manatees. 3. Are playing on
sympathy instead of fact. 4. Is founded by Jimmy Buffet who lives in New
York.
================================================= ==

There probably are a few genuine manatee lovers out there but I've
become increasingly convinced that a lot of the manatee protection
groups are being clothed and fed by home owners who live on or near
the shore, and are fed up with being buzzed by jet skiis and the
straight pipe speed boat set. Both of these groups sound a lot more
acceptable to the neighbors when running at idle speed. Notice that
there is no exception in the manatee speed zone regs for jet boats
which arguably could do little to harm a manatee at any speed.