Protecting the environment of Charlotte Harbor is a good thing. The perimeter of the harbor is almost entirely restricted from building and the fishing is great. Restricting acess to ant part of the harbor to boaters or fishermen on the grounds that manatees need a place to rest is unacceptable.


One of the biggest manatee myths is the idea that there are different sub species of the manatee, particularly that the West Insian Manatee is different from the Florida manatee. Misguided environmentalists perpetuated that myth in order to reduce the number of manatees in Florida and gain sympathy for their iminant extinction, and in the process start the Manatee Club which they could all work for. Only problem is the only difference between the Florida manatee and the West Indian manatee is one very tiny bone in the skull

Today the question is: whether there is enough sustainable food (sea grass) so feed the large manatee population we have – over 3,5000 animals in Florida alone.

Hot water discharge from powerplants has totally altered the manatee's natural migration patterens, sheltering them from cold and weakening their immune systems,. No one talks much about this.

 

There is good reason to believe manatees migrate, back and forth, much further than scientists want to admit. One manatee with a radio transmitter attached travelled from above Tampasouth to the Dry Tortugas off Key West. Scientists dispatched a helocopter to round up than animal. Scientists didn't want the radio track to confirm that manatees were migrating between Soiuth America, Cuba and Florida.

We already know Florida manatees have been around the Gulf coast to Texas and as far north as the Chesapeake Bay.

If science showed theWest Indian and Florida manatee populations were interbreeding it would mean all manatees would have to be counted as one population, a population totaling more thasn 8,000 animals. That could mean a decline in fund raising.



A LAWSUIT NO ONE COULD CHALLENGE

In January 2000 the Save the Manatee Club along with 18 other environmental orginizations sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Department of the Interior , The US Army Corps of Engineers, and the State of Florida's Department of environmental Protection. In those lawsuits the environmentalists claimed the defendants were not doing enough to protect the manatee.

Then the lawsuits were settled out of court without any input from the citizens. Next, new regulations were imposed. The terms of the settlement precluded any chance of an appeal. Measures such as restrictions on constructing new docks, limited or forbidden access to certain water areas, speed restrictions and usage permits are the tools for no-growth and no access regulations.

Compounding the conflict was the fact that the head of the state's Department of Environmental Protection left his state post to become a lobbyist for the Save the Manatee Club.

It all started with the United Nations in 1968 with their attempt to control water pollution around the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico.

This is the UN goal as it appears on the United Nation's Caribbean Environmental Program Website:

"Programmes of environmental education are an integral portion of a conservation programme and should be immediately implemented in areas where manatees occur. The public at all levels must understand the immediate and long-term benefits of species and habitat conservation. By stimulating appreciation and pride on the species, it may be possible to induce the development of a conservation philosophy, and achieve the goal of resource preservation. By being a high-profile species, the manatee may function as a catalyst in bringing together interested governmental and non-governmental agencies to elaborate comprehensive conservation plans. Manatees may be instrumental as well in the establishment of sanctuaries and attainment of the overall goal of preservation of coastal ecosystems with all their associated species."

So the Save the Manatee Club was formed to stimulate appreciation and pride on the species, and to bring job security to a group of quasi-environmental scientists who chose to ignore the truth to achieve their we-know-what's-best-for-you goal.

They were counting manatees around Florida from a moving airplane and had concluded that only 800 manatees existed in the wild in 1997.

In January 2000 the Save the Manatee Club along with 18 other environmental orginizations sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Department of the Interior , The US Army Corps of Engineers, and the State of Florida's Department of environmental Protection. In those lawsuits the environmentalists claimed the defendants were not doing enough to protect the manatee.

Then the lawsuits were settled out of court without any input from the citizens. Next, new regulations were imposed. The terms of the settlement precluded any chance of an appeal. Measures such as restrictions on constructing new docks, limited or forbidden access to certain water areas, speed restrictions and usage permits are the tools for no-growth and no access regulations.

Compounding the conflict was the fact that the head of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection left his state post to become a lobbyist for the Save the Manatee Club.