Sanctuary council backs personal watercraft ban
"This
came at the urging of hundreds of Keys residents."
— Debra Harrison,South
Florida director
of the World Wildlife Fund
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
Citizen Staff
The Florida Keys National
Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council is recommending the state keeps its
ban on personal watercraft in the federally protected refuges in the
backcountry of the Lower Keys.
The council, a local
group that makes recommendations on sanctuary policy, voted this week
unanimously to continue the ban on such vessels. Personal watercraft are
banned from the
Key West and Great
White Heron National Wildlife refuges, according to an agreement signed
by state and federal officials.
At its meeting Tuesday,
the council requested that sanctuary Superintendent Billy Causey send a
letter to state Department of Environmental Protection officials
supporting the ban. Both refuges are within sanctuary boundaries.
The Personal Watercraft
Industry Association is challenging the ban and an industry lobbyist has
met with state DEP officials about lifting it. Personal Watercraft
Association spokeswoman Peggy Mathews said the ban is discriminatory and
a violation of state law. She says the ban singles out personal
watercraft.
"This is not a personal
watercraft issue, but a state law issue. The submerged land lease is in
conflict with state law," Mathews said.
Mathews contends that
personal watercraft are held to the same laws as all watercraft and the
federal and state governments can create no-motor and no-wake zones and
other laws to protect the wildlife and fishing and other activities in
the refuges.
However, the sanctuary
council was careful to say that the ban is on more than just personal
watercraft. It extends to airboats, aircraft and hovercraft. The
agreement between the state and the federal government came after a
considerable amount of public input, said Debra Harrison, South Florida
director of the World Wildlife Fund. Refuges receive the highest amount
of protection, more than a national park, because of their fragile
nature and the protected status of some of the animals that call the
areas home,
Harrison said.
"This came at the urging
of hundreds of Keys residents," Harrison said, while the move to change
the rules "is not coming from the residents of the Keys, but from the
personal watercraft industry."
The Personal Watercraft
Industry Association is citing a state law enacted in 2000 that requires
that state and local regulatory agencies to treat all vessels the same.
However, the agreement between the state and the U.S. Fish Wildlife
Service was adopted in 1992, before the state law was enacted and some
say it trumps the recent law. The state owns the submerged land and the
federal government has jurisdiction over the mangroves and small islands
above water.
Comments on the ban can
be sent via e-mail to state DEP aquatic managed areas director Katherine
Andrews at Katherine.
Andrews@dep.state.fl.us.
tohara@keysnews.com |
