The point is: there are more then 4000 of the supra nourished herbivores
in the St. Johns River in the September Census. I do not have the
numbers for south FL and Tampa Bay. Perhaps you can provide them and add
the two together. At what point does the population become so large that
it becomes viable? When does a creature no longer need special
endangerment protection. Manatees are still a protected species, they
won't lose that status-ever! The current protection zones are working.
The population increase proves it. In Jacksonville and other cities on
the river, we don't need or want the draconian measures the F&G C are
planning. 25 mph in the channal? gimme a break. My cruiser barely planes
at 25. The sea cow doesn't even like the water in the channel because 1.
its too deep. The cow don't like water more then 8 or 9 feet deep. 2.
there is too much current for it to squat on the bottom. It would be
washed out to sea. 3 No food there. Fat cow don't go where there is no
food (period). Increasing the buffer zones from 1000 feet to 3000 feet
is just plain nuts.


Ask a homeowner in Ocala which is near silver springs, fl what they
think about the cute little monkeys running all over town and getting
into mischief. The primates have proflierated so much that their
colonies have been spotted as far north as Palatka. They were once
classed as an endangered species and now have to be hunted to keep the
population manageable. Should we allow the cow to go that way?

McManatees---Billions and billions spent. Lets waste more money.

CF

bb wrote:

On Fri, 21 Nov 2003 14:43:15 GMT, dcg wrote:


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.


I'll have to disagree with your assumpition that boaters will learn to
avoid them. When I'm fishing the Tampa Bay area grass flats I
regularly watch boat after boat plow through obvious shoal areas and
grass flats. The water can be glassy and clear, with the grass flats
and sand bars clearly visible, and yahoo's come one after another
plowing right through.

Maybe some boaters will learn to avoid the manatees, but certainly not
all.

bb