50

BROTHER
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Vol. 35, No. 38

Boca Grande, Florida

THIS WEEK

ONTHEISLAND

Your Locally Owned Weekly Newspaper

September 19, 2014

County might be one step closer to Gilchrist decision?

We would all like to think it could be so
n BY MARCY SHORTUSE

Youth fishing C
tournament
this Saturday

ould we be one step closer to

resolving the Gilchrist parking
situation? We know, weve said
it before. But this time ... maybe?
In an email dated September 16
and sent to county commissioners
and other Lee County administrators,
Assistant County Manager Douglas
Meurer addressed the key points of
discussion about Gilchrist, and said
that a majority of stakeholders in the
project approved. County commis-

n STAFF REPORT

ee County Parks & Recreation

and the Boca Beacon will be
hosting the first youth fishing
tournament of the season on Saturday, Sept. 20 from 9 to 11 a.m. at the
Boca Grande Fishing Pier on the
north end of the island.
The tournament is free for boys and
girls ages 15 and under. This is a
catch-and-release tournament and
bait will be provided by Boca Grande
Marina (no lures allowed).
Children must be supervised by a
parent/guardian for this event. Registration is not necessary just be at
the Boca Grande Fishing Pier ready
to fish by 9 am.
There will be prizes and awards in
many categories, and each child is
automatically entered into a raffle to
win even more prizes.
For more information, please contact Joe Wier at 964-2564.

See GILCHRIST on PAGE 18

n The newest plan proposed by the county leaves places to pull-in park, but utilizes different landscaping techniques as well.

Manatee-watercraft collisions highest in state in Lee County,

is the law enforcement response proportional?
n BY JACK SHORT

ee County has the dubious distinction of having, for the current year through August 22,
more watercraft-related manatee
deaths than any other county in the
state.
Thats according to a report released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission Marine
Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory.
Lee County had 13 manatee deaths
caused by watercraft. The counties
with the nearest number of similarly
caused mortalities were Charlotte, Citrus and Miami-Dade, all of which had
four.
The report is divided into eight categories (cause of death) including cold
stress, natural, perinatal and undetermined. Brevard led the state in total,
by far, with 71, largely due to 23 perinatal deaths and 38 undetermined
deaths.
Lee had 42, in total, and Charlotte
had 10.

Of the states total, 271 across the

33 counties covered by the report, Lee
and Charlotte Counties were host to
nearly 20 percent of watercraft-related
manatee deaths, and Lee County
alone accounted for nearly 15 percent.
According to a representative of the
Fish and Wildlife Research Institute,
the FWCs research arm, those numbers are only really unusual in the

sense that Brevard normally has much

higher numbers.
(Lee and Charlotte Counties having such a disproportionate number of
watercraft-related manatee deaths) is
not unusual, he said in an email. In
addition to Lee County, Brevard
County usually has a higher number
compared to the rest of the state,
but it is lower this year (for unknown
reason).
The numbers over the last five years
(for the same period the beginning
of the year through August 22), provided by the FWRI, bear that out. Of
the 295 total WC-related deaths over
those five periods, Lee and Charlotte
together were host to 25 percent of
them Lee with 19 percent and Charlotte with 6 percent.
The FWRI representative said the
high numbers could be the result of a
combination of factors.
If these are popular waterways for
See MANATEE on PAGE 11

Two GIBA
board seats to
be filled
automatically
DAVID HAYES
n BY JACK SHORT

t can be a good sign when no one

wants your job. Two seats went
uncontested on the Gasparilla Island Bridge Authoritys board this year.
Seats two and four, currently held by
David Hayes, Chairman, and Lee

LEE MAJOR

Major, will be occupied by their incumbents for another four years.

The appointment will be automatic,
because no other hats were thrown
into the ring.
Executive Director Kathy BansonSee GIBA on PAGE 12

BOCA BEACON - September 19, 2014

Page 11

Manatees
From PAGE 1
manatees, it puts more manatees in
the area and, in combination with the
popularity of boating in this region, it
may add up to a higher risk of manatee-vessel collisions, he said.
He added that it is possible manatees are being injured elsewhere and
being reported in high-count areas like
Lee County, since the deaths are reported as taking place in the counties
where the animals are discovered.
Additionally, he said, there is the
possibility that carcasses are better
reported due to higher traffic in Lee
County waters.
... carcasses do not always match
up with the location where the manatee was hit, he said. A proportion of
all watercraft-related mortalities (sic) is
chronic, so a manatee may get injured
in another part of the state, swim
around with the injury for months or
sometimes even years, and ultimately
succumb to its chronic trauma in a different county from where the collision
happened.
He said that Lee county is a popular
destination for manatees all year long,
but admitted that other counties are as
well.
Scott Calleson, a biologist for FWC
Fisheries and Wildlife, said Lee
County is in many respects a yearround heavy use area, with less seasonal fluctuation than nearby counties
such as Hillsborough, which also attracts manatees to sites such as the
Apollo Beach power plant, where the
animals take advantage of warm
water discharge during periods of low
water temperature. Water that dips
below a certain temperature can
cause cold stress and even mortality.
Lee Countys lack of fluctuation,
Calleson said, is certainly a factor in
boat strikes.
It is difficult to gauge the proportionality of law enforcement efforts across
counties for several reasons, not the
least of which is that multiple agencies
often contribute to marine regulation
enforcement. Lee County relies on the

efforts of their sheriffs department, the

FWC and other agencies included in
the Lee County Marine Law Enforcement Task Force, which includes the
Cape Coral Police Department.
Comparing data on enforcement action to another high-mortality county
such as Brevard, for example, is difficult. They rely on local law enforcement and the FWC but, also,
according to Matt Culver, Boating and
Waterways Program Coordinator for
Brevard County, occasional help from
federal agencies. On holidays, he
said, the United States Fish and
Wildlife Service will sweep and patrol
certain areas.
Brevard and Lee Counties were
both identified, as part of the
statewide manatee management plan,
as key counties with high mortalities
that were, as a result, directed to develop their own management plans.
In gauging the scope of law enforcement action, there is also the problem
of relative size of waterways in each
county, and whether or not those waterways are usable to manatees and
thus likely to attract them.
It is also necessary to determine if
those waterways are usable to
boaters, and also how the layout of internal water systems may affect en-

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forcement.
According to a Manatee Protection
Plan developed by Brevard county,
Brevard has 281 square miles of waterways. Calleson estimated that Lee
has 240 square miles. But Calleson
cautioned that, to a manatee, not all
water is equal.
In addition to factors such as submerged aquatic vegetation, fresh
water sources and warm water aggregation sites, all of which are identified
as crucial to manatee survival by the
FWCs Florida Manatee Management
Plan, there are simple conditions
such as the depth of the water that
may affect manatees presence in a
given area.
Calleson said that the vast majority
of Lees 240 square miles is usable to
manatees and, while Hillsborough
County may have close to that number, not all of the water is shallow
enough or suitable enough to be useful to manatees. Charlotte County, he
estimated, has only half as much
water as Lee, though much of it is harbor.
Like many counties, Lee County has
speed restriction zones as part of
state and federal regulations.
Calleson said about 30 percent of
Lee Countys inshore water is covered

by manatee protection zones. He estimated about 15 percent of Charlotte

Countys inshore water was similarly
protected.
The total water area doesnt tell the
whole story, said Calleson.
Protection is the result of zones created by federal and state mandates.
When the numbers and depths are
taken into account, he said, the differences are not quite as striking.
Still, data provided by FWCs law
enforcement division shows that, over
the same period that Lee County
racked up 13 watercraft-related mortalities, Brevards FWC officers performed 351 enforcement actions
related to watercraft. Those actions included everything from reckless operation and BUIs to improper gear.
During the same period, Lee County
FWC officers performed 224 enforcement actions of the same type, 64 percent of their counterparts in Brevard.
It is possible that local law enforcement balances out the disparity, but
the Beacon was not able to obtain that
data by press time.
Of course, the relevance of those
numbers also depends on the number
of boaters, the water accessible to
See MANATEES on PAGE 16

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Page 16

BOCA BEACON - September 19, 2014

Manatees
From PAGE 11
them, and manatee speed zones.
There are two problems areas in
Lee County, according to their MMP.
According to that 2004 report, the
Caloosahatchee River and Estero Bay
have 47.2 percent and 22.8 percent of
all Lee County watercraft deaths respectively.
But, according to Dr. John Reynolds
of Mote Marine Laboratories, Lee
County has 44,000 registered boats
and Brevard has 33,000. In addition,
he suggested Brevard County has a
large amount of restricted waterways,
because of NASAs presence there,
that arent available to boaters.
Manatees are protected by several
laws.
According to the FMMP, in addition
to the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act,
the federal Marine Mammal Protection
Act (16 U.S.C. 1361-1421), the federal Endangered Species Act (16
U.S.C. 1531-1544) and the Florida
Endangered and Threatened Species
Act (372.072, F.S.) also play important roles in the protection of the
Florida manatee.
Calleson estimates that the
statewide management plan laid out in
the FMMP will be revisited and systematically reviewed periodically
every 15 years approximately. He said
Lee County last looked at manatee
zones in areas near the Caloosahatchee River in the 1980s, and at
areas in western Lee County around
2000. They were forced to revisit the
subject in 2005 because of litigation,
which spurred a reevaluation, but
Calleson said the zones didnt change
all that much.
He said pressure comes from both
sides. Some people think that nothing

should be done at all and some

think the entire state should be a nowake zone for the manatees benefit.
The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act,
enacted in 1978, declares the entire
State of Florida a manatee refuge
and sanctuary, according to the
FMMP. None of that is contingent
upon the manatees status as either a
state or a federally listed species,
which has come into question again
recently.
Reynolds stressed that research scientists and organizations like Mote are
interested primarily in data. What gets
done with that data is up to legislators
people at the capitol.
In reference to recent efforts to delist manatees altogether (they are currently listed as threatened), Reynolds

said he doesnt think that would be

prudent.
One of the critical things about listing status is that we identify all the
threats to a population, he said.
There are too many deaths for
which no cause has been identified to
say that all threats to manatees have
been identified, according to
Reynolds.
He also stressed the importance of
a healthy manatee population because of its status as a flagship
species, he said, which is an animal or
plant whose success as a population
is both an indication of and a cause
for the success of components of its
ecosystem.
For example, he said, manatees are
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on which groups like recreational fishermen depend for healthy and biologically diverse fisheries and nurseries.
As for the known causes of manatee mortality, the 2004 FMMP states,
The largest known cause of humanrelated manatee mortality in Florida is
watercraft collision.
Moreover, according to both
Reynolds and the FMMP, the Southwest Region, containing Lee but not
Brevard County, is a problem area for
manatee survival. It is the only region,
out of four, that has not seen a positive population change in recent history.
Evidence suggests that estimates
of adult survival in this unit (Langtimm
et al. 2004) are lower than those of all
other management units, probably
due to the combined effects of chronic
human-related (watercraft) mortality
and episodic mortality events caused
by red tide, according to the FMMP.
Reynolds corroborated. It is still a
problem area, he said, but he cautioned that Lee County has also been
a focal point of several natural mortality events such as red tide blooms.
The long term effects of repeated exposure to those as well as cold stress
events are not known, and it may be
that they effect reproduction or even
survival in other ways, such as
through impairment.
He has been flying and conducting
aerial surveys for Florida Power and
Light Company for 35 years. Over that
period, he provided data to various
law enforcement agencies including
the FWC.
The way to accomplish effective
preservation, he said, is for people
from diverse viewpoints to communicate with one another in good faith.

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