|
THE
KEYS
Personal watercraft ban under review
Banned for more
than a decade from two Lower Keys wildlife refuges, personal watercraft
could be headed back on the water.
BY JENNIFER BABSON
jbabson@herald.com
HOWE KEY
-
Great
white herons perch on sun-bleached branches. Cormorants swoop into the
shallows for a scaly snack, and a lone bald eagle presides high above it
all, his regal beak defiant and proud.
Watching from an 18-foot skiff, captain Richard Grathwohl closes his
eyes to give full attention to a different kind of melody: It's an
ensemble of feathered hums, squeaks and squeals, with the occasional
throaty plea mixing it up for measure.
''This is what it used to be like in the Keys,'' Grathwohl said.
It is
about as close to paradise as you can manage these days off an island
chain buffeted by tourism, bisected by a major highway and brimming with
redevelopment.
That
could be about to change, too.
FLORIDA LAW
For
more than a decade, personal watercraft -- better known as Jet Skis,
WaveRunners and motorized waterbikes -- have been barred from two
federally managed wildlife refuges in the Lower Keys known for their
bird habitat. The personal watercraft industry, citing a 5-year-old
Florida law that says local and state laws ''may not discriminate''
against waterbikes, wants to return to the wild.
''All
we want to do is have every right that everybody else does as far as
being allowed back in,'' said Peggy Mathews, the Tallahassee-based
representative for the Personal Watercraft Industry Association. ``We're
just talking about fairness.''
The
Keys campaign appears to be part of a statewide effort by Mathews and
others to test park and refuge bans across Florida. Advocates recently
pressed the National Park Service to study lifting a prohibition on the
craft in Biscayne National Park.
Personal watercraft are permitted in most of the waters and channels
just off the length of the Keys, particularly on the ocean side.
AREAS OFF LIMITS
Since
1992, however, two areas have remained off limits: The 208,000-acre Key
West National Wildlife Refuge, which runs from the city's western tip
past the Marquesas; and the 192,000-acre Great White Heron National
Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses much of the shallow, mangrove-studded
backcountry of the Lower Keys. Both refuges are mostly water, though
they include hundreds of tiny islands.
The
flats are plied mostly by kayakers and skiff fishermen, who pole through
one- to three-foot shallows in search of tarpon, permit and bonefish
that scare easily. Commercial stone crabbers and lobster fishermen also
work these waters.
It
requires a tranquility that guides like Grathwohl contend would be
destroyed by waterbikes.
''The
refuge will get to where it's over run with Jet Skis, and it will lose
its uniqueness that we've treasured for years,'' said Grathwohl, who has
been fishing the area for more than three decades.
One
major dilemma for those fighting to maintain the ban: Florida
essentially owns the waters and the sea floor in the refuges, while the
federal government owns most of the islands. A 1992 agreement permits
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to manage the refuges, but gives both
parties the ability to terminate the pact.
That
means it may be Florida that decides whether waterbikes are to return.
''We're against letting them in, but if the state does, we don't
necessarily have a whole lot of ability to do anything because it's
state waters,'' said Van Fischer, federal natural resource planner for
the refuges.
The
state Department of Environmental Protection oversees Florida's interest
in state waters. Officials there say they have not yet reached a
decision about waterbikes.
''Right now it's under review, and we are meeting with both sides to
give it a thoughtful review to best protect the environment down
there,'' said Linda Long, a DEP spokeswoman. ''Until we meet with both
sides and flush the issue out, there is nothing we can say at this
point.'' Katherine Andrews, director of the DEP's Office of Coastal and
Aquatic Managed Areas, is scheduled to visit the Keys next month.
POSES A PROBLEM
Billy
Causey, superintendent of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary --
the boundaries of which include all of the waters off the Keys -- said
the versatility of the vessels poses a particular problem.
''You
can see them do doughnuts; you can see them do spin-arounds; you can see
them do maneuvers that boats can't do,'' Causey said. ``The one thing
they can do in the backcountry is get right up next to those mangrove
islands where birds are nesting, feeding, resting -- birds that when
flushed may not go back.
``I
feel very strongly there are portions of the Keys that are not
appropriate for personal watercraft and that is the backcountry of the
Florida Keys.''
The
sanctuary's advisory council is expected to discuss the issue next
month.
Before they were banned, personal watercraft were considered to be a
problem in the backcountry, scaring off birds and fish, running over
some creatures and zipping around shallow waters.
''The
reason they got banned was because it was such a problem,'' Fischer
said.
Mathews, however, argues that education and no-wake zone enforcement
could remedy that problem, while four-stroke engines have quelled the
screech many associate with the craft.
`FAMILY ORIENTED'
''It's a very family-oriented sport now,'' she said. ``You can get a
family of three on the water for $10,000. It's an entry-level boat for
your average person who couldn't afford any other type of vessel.''
But
longtime flats Captain Michael Vaughn remembers a time, before the ban,
when personal watercraft ''safaris'' to the backcountry were touted by
some operators.
''On
any given morning, there would be 15 to 20 Jet-Skiers idling, just under
an eagle's nest,'' Vaughn said, eyeing the eagle on Howe Key from afar.
On
the platform of his skiff, Grathwohl gently poled toward the bird. Then
the solitary creature withdrew its brief audience and took wing.
Waterbikes ''have a big area where they can play,'' Grathwohl said.
``Why do they have to go to our field of dreams?'' |
