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| July 20,
2005
County aims to improve boat access Goals: Aid manatees, ease ramp traffic BY JIM WAYMER If you own a boat, you might soon get a survey in the mail, asking where you launch from, where you go in your boat and how you get there. Brevard County officials are considering spending up to $300,000 for a study of the county's boat traffic patterns. The survey would be part of it. They would use the information to decide where to build new boat ramps, allow new marinas, and otherwise improve boating access without harming manatees, seagrass and other wildlife. But as county officials look to improve access, environmentalists fear weakened manatee protection. "They can't take a manatee protection plan and turn it into a boating access plan," said Sandra Clinger, a regional representative with the Save the Manatee Club, an environmental group. "We're not at that level in Brevard County where we're seeing people having nowhere to store their boats," she said. On July 29, Commissioner Helen Voltz will host a forum in Viera about improving boating access and manatee protection. Twelve other coastal counties have been invited: the counties that Florida forced in 1989 to create manatee protection plans. Many of those counties are struggling to maintain public access to waterfronts where marinas are converting to private condos. Plans blasted Earlier this year, a Naples-based marina developer tried to convert Whitley Bay Marina -- Cocoa's only public-access marina -- into a members-only yacht club. The fight went all the way to the state Cabinet, which in March ruled the developers should keep 90 percent of the slips available to the public until current leases end. But the case worried boaters statewide, who say too many marinas going private and manatee rules that limit the number of slips hamper any efforts to improve access. "Water access has been ruined by a poor manatee protection plan," said Steven Webster, a Merritt Island boater and the executive director of the Florida Marine Contractor's Association, a trade group. "It does nothing to allow us to replace slips that have been eliminated by privatization." Voltz's forum on July 29 includes a presentation by representatives of Florida SeaGrant's Boating and Waterway Management Program, which would conduct the boating traffic study for Brevard. "The whole idea is to balance the use of the resource with its protection," said Robert Swett, an assistant professor at the University of Florida's department of fisheries and aquatic sciences and a researcher with the SeaGrant program. He's conducting a similar study of Sarasota County. "We're science-based, and we feel that decisions need to be based on scientific information," Swett said. "They'll have numbers they can work with. We're not here to tell the county what to do." Study soon? The study in Brevard could start as soon as the end of this year, if county commissioners approve it. They plan to seek state grants and money from the Florida Inland Navigation District to pay for it. The SeaGrant researchers would survey boaters and visit ramps, marinas and other boat launching sites during peak tourist season. They would use that information to create maps that display the boat traffic patterns. More information about where boats go could help improve manatee protection, said Clinger of Save the Manatee Club. "If boats are moving in different ways than they did historically, it would give us an opportunity to look at where new threats to manatees are occurring," she said. New formula In January 2003, by a 3-2 vote, Brevard County commissioners approved a new formula for determining how many new boat slips should be allowed at new and existing marinas.
Any changes in Brevard or other county's manatee protection plans would require approval by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. 'It's ridiculous' As the county grows, Justin Sharp of Melbourne expects more boating restrictions and crowding at the ramps, not less. "It's probably just going to end up worse," Sharp said. He grew up in a Brevard, where the lagoon once was much more accessible to boats and personal watercraft. "It's ridiculous," Sharp said of some of the manatee slow-speed zones, as he launched an 18-foot boat from the public ramp at at Pineda Causeway. Some conditions at the public ramps and along the lagoon just don't make sense to Mike Troy, either. "Every one of the channels are marked. They don't mark shoals real well," said Troy, 35, of Melbourne. He battles crowded ramps every weekend he launches his 17-foot boat, like the time he showed up at 6 a.m. to Jorgensen's Landing in Grant and all the parking already was filled. But even with the hassles, boating in the lagoon is worth it, Troy said. "It's the most fun I've ever had," he said. Manatee protection plan Brevard marine-related businesses: 407 |
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