Watch those manatee speed zones

When the man who was waiting on me at the fish market last weekend turned around to grab some ice, I read the back of his T-shirt. It advertised manatee burgers.

A joke? Sure, kind of like how bald eagle patties taste like chicken. An old joke? Maybe. These days most boaters accept the fact that they share the waterways with the protected sea cows and they must abide by manatee speed zones.

"The regular local boaters seem to have gotten the message on the zones," said Sgt. Todd LaBair of the Cape Coral Police Department's marine unit.

But then there are the other boaters. "Where we see the main violations are people that are new to boating or are from out of the area," he said.

That'd be a whole lotta people, considering more than 25,000 newcomers moved to Lee County last year, and one in 10 residents here owns a boat.

Speed zones can be head-scratchers. You have to slow down to read the sign to see if you can, for example, go 25 mph in the channel. Or, you have to check to see if you're in a place where speed is unrestricted in the winter but then changes to slow speed in spring and summer.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JUSTIN MCBRIDE Boaters on the Caloosahatchee have been living with manatee speed zones for years now and water cops say compliance is up among year-round residents. The fish market guy's T-shirt was a reminder of the days when people didn't understand the zones. But, more importantly, they didn't understand why they were being - as they viewed it - targeted. In the mid 90s and earlier years of this decade, boaters considered the state and federal speed zones a classic example of overregulation.

The lumbering, large mammals hang on the surface to breathe, and they're often slow to get out of the way of hulls and propellers. At the time the speed zones were being mapped out, manatees were dying and their numbers dwindling, according to various reports. Most died because of reasons other than boats slamming them - red tide, for example, or long periods of cold.

But the state and feds couldn't control algae blooms or the weather, so they regulated what they could control - the boaters. Each time a manatee dies, they do a necropsy to determine the cause. In 2001, Lee County had its worst year for watercraft-related mortalities. The record of 23 still stands.

To add more steam to the already heated situation back then, it wasn't just boaters on the water who were being affected. Enough manatees died that the feds put a moratorium on dock building. That caused ripple effects for those marine industry workers and it also impacted homeowners.

Everyone everywhere was mad.

Public hearings drew thousands of boaters, realtors, dock builders and others. A demonstration in Cape Coral brought people in from around the state to protest and packed the area the way a parade would.

I remember driving through North Fort Myers and seeing an axe in the head of a manatee mailbox. I commuted daily by a tackle-store marquee that advertised propground manatee.

Fortunately, the dock moratorium was lifted, fewer watercraft related mortalities were reported and local boaters started understanding speed zone signs better.

Things have calmed down.

Little Shell and Tarpon Point on the Caloosahatchee were places people used to run at full speed despite the manatee zone. They figured no one would catch them. But now boaters are traveling the posted zone, said Capt. Denis Grealish of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fort Myers office. Education and enforcement efforts are working, Grealish and others told me.

That's not to say, though, that everyone is complying with the zones.

Water cops in Lee County issued 1,070 citations in 2007 for manatee speed zone violations. More than 51,000 boats are registered here. By the way, the tickets cost $67.50 or $64, depending on whether it's issued in City of Fort Myers or elsewhere in the county.

That steams some boaters - enough so that they're happy to wear T-shirts that point out what is still perceived by some as idiotic regulation. Or maybe like most boaters, they just see the T-shirt message as a good natured, retro joke.

- Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on Pine Island and also is Lee County Parks & Recreation's waterways coordinator. Contact her at boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com.

KNOW TO GO SLOW

>>Read the signs. Some zones are year-round and others are seasonal. Several areas throughout the county, including Estero Bay and St. James City, had changes in the posted speed zones on April 1.

>>Get the Lee County Boater's Guide. It's free and at Lee County Natural Resources or online at www.lee-county.com/naturalresources/guide.htm

>>Wear polarized sunglasses. They make it easier to see manatees under the surface.

>>Pole, paddle or use a trolling motor when over shallow seagrass beds.

>>If you see a struggling, beached or injured manatee, don't try to help the animal yourself. Call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission hotline at (888) 404-FWCC (3922).