[MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL] Re: Why Is It Illegal To Ride a Manatee? (manatee protection)

For those of us in the U.S. who might be a boater,
I have my boat insurance with Boat U.S. It is a non-profit organization that also promotes the interests of boating (let's just say it, they lobby). We'll they can be fairly sloppy about environmental protection if they believe that boating rights are being violated. Florida and the manatees are a big hot-spot for this problem.
Boat U.S. is part of the board that sits down with USFWS to develop protection strategies, and as I have said, they will often side with the groups that think they need a dock and boat ramp in every backyard and want to be able to drive 90 mph everywhere they go.
So if you happen to be a member, contact them at the e-mail address for the president and government affairs office and tell them that when you boat you want to see manatees too. I usually also tell them that if their boaters don't want to accomodate manatees, they should move to someplace like Lake Havasu in AZ where there aren't any.

--- In MARINE_BIOLOGY_INTERNATIONAL@yahoogroups.com, "robsonbight" <grm.phd@...> wrote:
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> Tampa, FL - Anyone looking for cheap thrills and a quick brush with nature should reconsider thoughts of riding a manatee. As a Florida woman is learning, multiple federal and state laws can be swiftly wielded in defense of the vulnerable sea cow.
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> Ana Gloria Garcia Gutierrez, 52, accused of riding a manatee in a waterway in Pinellas County over the weekend, turned herself in after authorities on her trail released photos that appear to show her mid-ride.
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> The Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act outlaws riding or touching the slow-moving marine mammals. And while Gutierrez wasn't immediately charged, her alleged crime is punishable by a $500 fine or a jail term of up to 60 days, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
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> There was no immediate indication that federal charges would be pressed, but Gutierrez's alleged offense also would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the U.S. Endangered Species Act, under which she could be subject to thousands of dollars in additional fines for harassing a protected species.
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> Such penalties may seem outsized for a joy ride on a thick-skinned manatee, which was not thought to have been physically injured in the encounter. But authorities' refusal to regard Gutierrez's alleged crime as harmless whimsy is perhaps acknowledgement that human interactions with manatees are precisely what threaten to end the endangered animal's existence.
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> The same easygoing and curious nature that would likely predispose a manatee to taking on a human passenger seems to contribute to the species' vulnerability to being mowed down by passing speed boats. [Manatee Mystery: Why Can't They Avoid Speedboats?]
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> About 87 Florida manatees are killed by humans every year, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, most of them dying in boat collisions. And with an estimated Florida population of 3,800 manatees, 87 is a grave number.
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> Coastal development, which has altered and destroyed manatee habitat, also threatens the species.
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> Swimmers seeking a visceral interaction with a non-manatee marine mammal, take note: Riding a dolphin — the gazelle to the manatee's cow — also violates federal law.
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