Technology could aid Manatees - BoatU.S. Reports

Boat/US Magazine, March, 2002

Six research projects are underway in Florida in an effort to find a "silver bullet" that could resolve the state's manatee impasse.

In December, the Florida Marine Research Institute awarded $200,000 in grants to explore electronic warning devices or other hi-tech equipment that could prevent collisions between watercraft and manatees.

The manatee, a marine mammal protected under federal and Florida law, is at the center of a controversy over how stringently recreational boating should be controlled in many parts of the state. According to the Bureau of Protected Species Management, collisions with recreational and commercial watercraft account for about 25% of all manatee deaths annually.

Environmental organizations, led by the Save the Manatee Club, advocate restrictions that range from slow-speed refuges to sanctuaries where all watercraft are prohibited. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the state are in the process of designating new restricted areas as part of a legal settlement with the environmentalists.

Some boaters' rights groups and anglers' organizations contend that further boating restrictions are not warranted and could actually endanger the animals further. They point to research showing that manatees cannot hear the low-pitched sound of slow-moving boats and thus avoid approaching vessels.

The application of electronic manatee avoidance technology is the way to continue the steady gains in the population, they say. Last year the Florida legislature heard that message and appropriated the research monies from the Marine Resources Conservation Trust Fund.

The six grants, awarded to universities and independent researchers, range from development of equipment to alert boaters to the presence of manatees in their path to signaling devices that would warn the animals of approaching watercraft.

The manatee population stood at about 600 animals 30 years ago and boaters' rights group point to a steady increase in population since then, even as boat registrations in Florida quadrupled. Last years' annual winter census counted 3,276 manatees in Florida waters, an all-time high.

At press time, unseasonably warm weather had delayed this year's statewide census and a spokesman for the Bureau of Protected Species said the annual count for 2002 might not be conducted unless conditions improved.

More definitive information about the current status of the manatee in Florida and long-term population trends should come out of a scientific conference to be convened in April, the first such academic conference since 1992.