[TSOJOURNER]

It appears that the "miserable mile" down by Shell Point on the Caloosahatchie River may be made into a "manatee refuge". If this comes to pass it will bring about severe restrictions on boat traffic - all boats - in this area. It is a channel area that is effectively a "choke point" in the river.

For those of you who may be planning to go there for the winter...you may want to put plan B into place. It has not been finalized, but it is in the works. Tentative is the word.

It will be interesting to see how this pans out.

They are also talking about the north end of the Peace River...but for most of us that is not a problem. I have a 47'' mast and can''t get under US-41 anyway.

 

[BigRed56]

Ahoy, Rob, I''ve got a great recipe for the sea cow and all the over zealous protectors of the silly thing. It involves a nice cianti and some farve beans.!!! Big Red

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Yeehaw!! Throw another one on the barby!!

Put that recipe up!!

Afterall, manatees were first brought to Florida if I remember correctly to feed the workers on the Keys railroad bridges. Hmmm..
I wonder if a websearch would pop up any other recipes!!

Rob

 

[egallant]

>Afterall, manatees were first brought to
>Florida if I remember correctly to feed the
>workers on the Keys railroad bridges. Hmmm..

Actually, they''ve found fossilized manatee bones in Florida that are at least 45 million years old. The Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) are undoubtedly a native species.

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Emil....this is true. But the present day manatees are only distant relatives. The ones that we see today are not indigenous to Florida.

 

[egallant]

Rob -

I''m not sure where you''re getting your information from, the Florida manatee is a native species, they have never been imported.

Pre-historic Florida Indians created ceremonial pipes in the shapes of manatees.
The first laws protecting manatees where enacted in 1893, before that, they had been netted and shot by Indians for food and then later shot and killed by "pioneers" for meat and oil.

The Florida manatee in actually a subspecies of the West Indian manatee and it''s found only on the East and Gulf coasts.

I lived in Florida for a few years and became interested in them, their history and the conservation efforts.

http://www.savethemanatee.org/myths.htm

That site has some interesting facts and information regarding manatees.

 

[TSOJOURNER]

Thats interesting....seems I''ve read information put out by the State of Florida some time ago about the West Indian Manatee that is presently in our waters that indicated that they were not indigenous as a species. In fact the same document stated that they were first brought to Florida as food for the railroad workers down in the Keys.... One never knows what is truth anymore, eh?

Unfortunately....one organization that I would be disinclined to believe for a moment would be the SMC people.....afterall, the Manatee is their "cash cow", so anything, to include disputable disinformation in the form of propaganda is to their financial benefit, otherwise they would have to find real jobs.

Don''t get me wrong....I have nothing against Manatees, nothing at all. And I do think that they, like most of God''s creatures deserve some protection from the ravages of man. But I do object to people who use lawyers and emotion coupled with "storm trooper tactics" to get their way. Sometimes I think their goals have naught to do with the preservation of the Manatee''s....but more their own egotistic power plays. I do understand their agenda....the complete and total elimination of all boats from Florida waters.

To see some of how the SMC really works... you might want to go to http://www.boatered.com and go to the "Ask the Captain" forum and do a search on "Whitney Marina"....kind of interesting to see how the SMC abuses the legal system..........

Me, I would hope that common sense would prevail and some good method would be found to protect these animals....before someone who loses his property rights and ability to enjoy his property or boat goes off the deep end and goes "postal" on a bunch of manatees, like some of the commercial netters did over the gill nets. I wonder how the SMC would feel to know that they effectively contributed to the demise of the very creature they "said" they were trying to protect?