Urgent Update On Kings Bay - Save the Manatee Club

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Ginger Returns! By Courtney Edwards, Staff Biologist – Tampa Bay Update A fter over a year with no sign of our Tampa Bay adoptee, Ginger, she was finally spotted in southwest Florida on January 16th near Manatee Park in Lee County! Although Ginger is included in our Tampa Bay Adoption Program, she is more often seen south of Tampa Bay in the Marco Island area. Her sighting in Lee County was approximately 60 miles north of Marco Island. Both Vector and Flicker decided to stay in the Tampa Bay area this winter. Vector was sighted at the Tampa Electric Company power plant (TECO) on January 15th and January 19th, and Flicker was seen at the Paul L. Bartow Steam Power Plant in St. Petersburg on February 1st. There have been no sightings of the other Tampa Bay adoptees, Elsie and Jemp, since our last update in March. As the temperatures continue to increase, the Tampa Bay adoptees, along with the rest of the manatee population, will travel throughout Florida and to a few surrounding states. Manatees have been known to travel as far west as Texas and as far north as Cape Cod, Massachusetts during the summer months. For this reason, while they enjoy the waterways this summer, we remind boaters in Florida and other states to keep a lookout for manatees. For more information on how boaters can help protect manatees, please visit www.savethemanatee. org/ boatertips.htm (and see the article at the bottom of page 1). More Ways You Can Help Have you ever thought about becoming a Club volunteer? Or joining our Manatee Sighting Network? Or contacting decision-makers? Find out more about all the ways you can help. Go to www.savethemanatee.org/moreways to find out how. Thank you so much! You make a big difference in the lives of manatees! Manatees Back In Alabama For Summer Season By Dr. Ruth Carmichael, Jessica Delo, and Allen Aven – Alabama Adoption Update We had a quiet winter in Alabama and Mississippi waters. Manatees left the area in late fall, and for the first time since we started our Manatee Sighting Network in 2007, we had no winter season manatee mortalities. As expected, manatees returned to Alabama waters sooner because of the early warm temperatures this year. We also are making plans to tag five manatees in Alabama later this summer and continue to be on the lookout for our previously tagged manatees, including Bama and Zewie. The Alabama/Mississippi dock sign program (sponsored by Save the Manatee Club and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) is still going strong. We distributed and posted more than 100 manatee awareness signs in local waterways this year and continue to receive requests. In March, our Manatee Sighting Network celebrated its 5th year in operation by unveiling a 40-foot tall manatee mural by renowned artists Dwight Kirkland and Michael Colley. The mural is located at Tacky Jack’s Restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway in Gulf Shores, Alabama. The mural promotes awareness of manatees and our sighting network to visitors from all over the country. Please stop by to view our beautiful new reminder to watch out for manatees in Alabama waters! 6 Help Manatees For Tomorrow Remember Save the Manatee Club in your will or living trust, name the Club a beneficiary in your life insurance policy or retirement plan, and give gifts of real estate and stock. Please consult your attorney about a legacy gift or contact Patrick Rose, the Club’s Executive Director, for further information at 1-800-432-5646. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Our federal tax identification number is 59-3131709. Thank you for caring!
Take Action Sign up to receive our email alerts on this critical issue and how you can help. Go to www.savethemanatee.org/action. Please donate today and help us take whatever actions are necessary, especially legal action, to protect manatees in Kings Bay, throughout Florida, and beyond. Go to www.savethemanatee.org/donation, or call 1-800-432-JOIN (5646). Thank you so much for your help! Urgent Update On Kings Bay continued from page 1 Notices of Intent to Sue the Service for adopting the new Kings Bay rule. As if this was not bad enough, following SCR’s lead, both the City of Crystal River and Citrus County have adopted their own legal petitions urging the removal of all existing state mandated manatee protections in Kings Bay. Because the intent of these malicious legal attacks is to remove or repeal all manatee protections, Save the Manatee Club must take whatever legal or other means necessary to defend, not only the Service’s additional manatee protections in Kings Bay, but also to defend existing state and federal manatee pro tections. And not just in the bay, but everywhere manatees are at risk, since a loss here in such a critical place for manatees would mean the Service could not protect manatees anywhere. Knowing this, even more manatee opponents are likely to join this effort to strip manatees of their vitally needed protections. Why are they going to all this trouble you may ask? Sadly, it is so they can go as fast as they want, wherever they want, even within the only designated National Manatee Refuge in America. Safeguarding manatees in Kings Bay during non-winter months will bring thousands more visitors to Crystal River to see manatees all year long, rather than just in the colder months. But the City seems more than willing to sacrifice individual manatees, and their own economic livelihood, for these few powerful wealthy opponents who want to continue to ski, and for others who have made it their life’s calling to resist federal protections, no matter the consequences. The Mayor repeatedly argues Kings Bay Watercraft-Related Manatee Deaths, 2002 – May 4, 2012 Map of Kings Bay showing location, image, and year of the 15 watercraftrelated fatalities occurring between 2002 and May 4, 2012. Former high speed zone in white. Photos provided by FWC-MMPL and Lowry Park Zoo. that there is no manatee problem in Kings Bay, while it is undeniable that 17 manatees have been found dead in the bay, or have later died from mortal wounds caused by watercraft injuries. Nor, according to the Mayor, is it a problem that so many manatees have been horribly maimed and continue to suffer from their injuries. Another City Councilman mocked pictures of dead manatees presented to the Council during one of its meetings. This shows just how far the current Council has sunk from previous ones that declared Crystal River the “Home of the Manatees.” By bowing to the Council’s uncaring demands, and allowing high-speed boating activities in this small but vital section of Kings Bay through which all boats and manatees must pass, the Service is implying that killing and injuring more manatees is acceptable so people can continue to play at high speeds in this critical manatee refuge. If we cannot protect manatees here, then where? Without our continued intervention, manatees face even more tragic losses in protection within this highly critical habitat. Please help us stand against those radical, malicious parties who would leave manatees vulnerable to great harm, just so they can play. 7
Page 1 and 2: The Official Newsletter of Save the
Page 3 and 4: This incredible photo was taken by
Page 5: Boaters, Prepare To Protect Manatee
Page 9 and 10: Gift Catalog You can also order onl
Page 11 and 12: Front Back Dog Leash A great way to

Urgent Update On Kings Bay - Save the Manatee Club

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?