EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Local Rule Review Committee (LRRC) was convened in July 2003 to evaluate and provide local perspectives on new manatee protection zones in Tampa Bay proposed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). The Tampa Bay LRRC was the first constituted under a new state law requiring review of state manatee zones by a local advisory panel of diverse stakeholders. That law, the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act, specified that the membership of the LRRC must contain a 50-50 balance of manatee advocates and waterway user advocates, and set a 60-day time clock, commencing upon receipt of the formal state proposal, for reviewing and providing a report to the FWC summarizing the Committee’s recommendations regarding the proposed zones.

State law allows for counties bordering a single waterway to designate a joint committee to represent their communities. The County Commissions of Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas designated an existing manatee advisory committee, the Tampa Bay Estuary Program’s Manatee Awareness Coalition, to serve as the LRRC. Appendix A contains copies of the county resolutions designating the MAC as the LRRC for Tampa Bay.

Members of the LRRC were drawn from the existing MAC membership. Additional important stakeholder groups were identified and invited to serve on the LRRC to ensure the required balance of interests. Appendix B contains a complete list of the LRRC members, alternates where those were utilized, and associated stakeholder affiliations. The committee was composed of 14 voting members and a non-voting Chair, Nanette Holland of the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. Ms. Holland and the TBEP staff also provided administrative support for the committee throughout its duration.

The LRRC met six times between July 15 and August 27. Appendix C contains a list of the meeting dates and times. One open public forum was held, on August 26 at the Manatee Civic Center from 6-9 p.m. Nearly 600 people, predominantly Manatee County residents opposed to the regulatory speed zones proposed by the state, attended that forum. The forum offered an opportunity for the committee to present its findings to the public, and to obtain feedback from citizens on those recommendations. A videotape of the forum is provided as a supplement to this report.

Regular committee meetings were scheduled for three hours, but frequently ran long to allow ample time for discussion. All meetings were recorded on audiotape; the tapes are available at the Tampa Bay Estuary Program office in St. Petersburg. In total, the committee met for more than 20 hours over a six-week period.

The first meeting, on July 15, was devoted to a presentation of the state proposal from FWC’s Bureau of Protected Species Management staff, and allowed LRRC members to ask questions about the proposal and about the data upon which the proposal was based. Data presented by FWC staff included aerial surveys, satellite telemetry and mortality reports.

Subsequent meetings were devoted to a county-by-county discussion of the manatee protection zones proposed by the FWC. The public forum was held on August 26, after the committee had completed its review of the proposal, and developed recommendations regarding zones in each of the three counties. Public comments and input also were encouraged at the regular committee meetings, which often were attended by 40 or more people. Additionally, minutes of each meeting were sent via e-mail, within 48 hours of each committee meeting, to a substantial list of people who asked to be provided with those minutes.

A final, wrap-up meeting was held August 27 to review the recommendations, and to offer an opportunity to reconsider or clarify the initial recommendations. At this time, committee members also made specific recommendations for new or expanded of boater education programs. Appendix D summarizes those recommendations.

In general, the LRRC recommended few new state regulatory speed zones for Tampa Bay, opting instead to defer to existing local or federal zones where they existed, or were planned, and to support existing organized boater education or seagrass protection programs in areas with no regulation. Speed zones were recommended in the Little Manatee River and Apollo Beach areas of Hillsborough County, and in the Braden and Manatee rivers of Manatee County. In Manatee County, a majority of the committee supported deferring state rulemaking until the county has completed a revision of its existing slow speed ordinance, and adoption of that ordinance as the formal state rule for manatee protection in the county. No new speed zones were recommended for Pinellas County.

Although committee members reached unanimous or near-unanimous agreement on several areas proposed for regulation by the state, in other areas they were sharply divided, with manatee advocates on the committee supporting at least some speed restrictions in most areas, and boating and angling representatives on the committee preferring no regulation or favoring boater education initiatives instead of regulation. In two areas proposed for regulation by the FWC - the western side of Old Tampa Bay from the Howard Frankland Bridge to the Gandy Bridge, and the eastern side of Tampa Bay from the Courtney Campbell Causeway to the Gandy Bridge - the committee failed to achieve a consensus after extensive discussion and exploration of alternatives, and ultimately was unable to make a recommendation to the state.

Key philosophical differences characterized much of the discussions regarding the proposed zones. Boating and angling interests view Tampa Bay as a success story, with relatively few manatee deaths due to watercraft collisions for a waterway of its size (81 deaths from 1974-January 2003), extensive existing local speed zones and substantial recovery of both manatee populations and the seagrass habitats that support them. This combination of factors led them to conclude that significant additional regulation of boating speeds was not warranted.

Manatee advocates cited the relatively high proportion of manatee deaths from watercraft in Tampa Bay compared with deaths from all causes. They also noted that the trend appears to be on the upswing, with approximately 70% of the deaths occurring since 1993. The high number of boats registered in the three Tampa Bay counties (more than 110,000) prompted concern from these advocates about the potential for increased boater-manatee interactions as the region continues to grow.

Despite these disparate viewpoints, there was a clear majority of nine or more votes on the final motions for most of the bay segments identified for possible regulation.

SUMMARY OF LOCAL RULE REVIEW COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS

Cockroach Bay Area

Recommendation to reject the state proposal to implement a regulatory slow speed zone in this area. Instead, the committee expressed support for a boater education and compliance monitoring program for this area to be conducted by the Cockroach Bay Users Group. This boater education program has been approved by the Hillsborough County Commission for a 3-year trial period.

Little Manatee River

Recommendation to endorse the state proposal for a blanket 25 mph speed zone in the Little Manatee River west of I-75, and to modify the proposal to require slow speed east of I-75.

MacDill Air Force Base Area

Recommendation to reject the state proposal for a regulatory slow speed zone along the shoreline from approximately Misener Marine south to and encompassing MacDill Air Force Base because a local City of Tampa speed zone associated with a pending development is being implemented for the northern portion of this zone (from Misener Marine south to and encompassing the flats adjacent to the American Legion building out to the 6-foot contour). Additionally, the southern portion, surrounding MacDill AFB, is already a strictly enforced, no-entry area to boaters as a weapons firing range impact zone and under homeland security provisions.

Apollo Beach Area

Recommendation to endorse the state proposal for a slow speed zone in the small “polygon” at the northwestern tip of Apollo Beach (the “Hammerhead”) that is currently sandwiched between existing Hillsborough County and federal speed zones.

Hillsborough Bay Area

Recommendation to reject the state proposal for a regulatory slow speed zone in the entire eastern side of McKay Bay and the entire Palm River because this area is mostly under local regulation. There is an existing county Slow Speed Minimum Wake zone in the entire Palm River from the 50th Street Bridge (US 41) east to the first hydro-lock at State Road 60 (Adamo Drive).

Old Tampa Bay (East) from the Courtney Campbell Causeway North to the Pinellas County Line

Recommendation to cap speeds at 25 mph in all existing marked channels from the Hillsborough County border with Pinellas County to the Courtney Campbell Bridge; and to reject the state proposal for slow speed in the flats outside the channels from shore to approximately the 6-foot contour. The committee also recommended that Channel A be marked as 25 mph along its entire length to the existing no wake zone at the residential canal developments near the Bayport Yacht Club. Additionally, the committee recommended that the flats in this area from shore out to the 6-foot contour be designated as non-regulatory “Seagrass Caution Zones” for purposes of boater education and identified as such on local boating guides and on signs at area boat ramps.

Old Tampa Bay (east) from the Courtney Campbell Causeway South to the Gandy Bridge

The committee failed to reach a consensus recommendation for this area after a lengthy discussion and examination of several less restrictive alternatives.

Upper Manatee River/Braden River Area

The committee recommended that the Braden River south of approximately the city of Bradenton line, or the Braden River Lakes subdivision, be a slow speed zone, with no provision for faster access, as currently specified in Manatee County Ordinance 99-03. North of that point, the committee recommended that a 25 mph channel be provided to allow faster access for boaters to the Manatee River.

Additionally, the committee endorsed the county’s existing ordinance (99-03), creating a 300-foot slow speed shoreline buffer in the Manatee River east of I-75, calling on the state to defer rulemaking in this area until the county has completed an expected revision of its existing ordinance, and then for the state to adopt the county ordinance as the official state rule for this area.

Finally, the committee endorsed the county’s intention to identify and exempt several traditional water sports recreation areas from the slow speed zone restrictions.

Terra Ceia Bay/Manatee River Area, Upper Manatee River and Anna Maria Sound areas

Recommendation to defer to the county ordinance for the remainder of Manatee County’s waterways within the purview of the committee, with the exception of several 25 mph channels or traditional-use corridors recommended by the committee but not presently included in the county ordinance. Specifically, the committee supports 25 mph limits in the following identified channels or deeper-water travel paths:

• A deep-water corridor into and through Miguel Bay
• A deeper-water travel corridor to the south of Joe Island, running east and west.
• A deeper-water corridor to the west of Joe Island, running north and south.
• The entrance channel into Bishop’s Harbor.

Weedon Island Area

The committee rejected the proposal for state regulation of the Weedon Island Preserve area south of the Gandy Bridge, because Pinellas County has implemented, posted and enforced regulatory idle, slow and combustion-engine exclusion zones here. The committee did recommend that the FWC assist the county in enforcing the speed restrictions in this area.

In the area north of the Gandy Bridge, encompassing the shallow waters from the Howard Frankland Bridge to the Gandy Bridge, as well as the Big Island area north of the Howard Frankland, the committee failed to reach a consensus after a lengthy discussion and examination of several modifications to the state proposal.

Boca Ciega Bay Area

The committee rejected the state proposal for slow-speed zones in the waters surrounding Tierra Verde and the eastern portion of Fort DeSoto Park because Pinellas County has an active and apparently successful resource management program in place that encompasses some regulatory combustion-engine exclusion zones as well as numerous signs warning boaters to operate with caution in shallow waters with seagrass beds. The committee also recommended that the flats between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge be placed under county management, and that the FWC and the Florida Department of Transportation work with the county to accomplish that.

St. Petersburg Area

The committee rejected the state proposal for slow-speed zones in this area because the city of St. Petersburg has several local speed zones in place that the committee deemed adequate for manatee protection.

Old Tampa Bay (West)

The committee rejected the state proposal for this area, recommending instead that the flats from shore out to the 6-foot contour be identified as non-regulatory “Seagrass Caution Areas” for purposes of boater education, and that the designation be noted on boat ramp kiosks and Boater’s Guides.