State, Counties Plan New Manatee Zones

After years of discussion and compromises, manatee protection zones in Pinellas County are a reality, signs for a local zone running 11 miles along the southeastern section of Tampa Bay in Hillsborough County are pending state approval, and Manatee County's first manatee protection zone is well on its way to implementation by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).

In Pinellas, manatee and habitat protection zones are now in place at Weedon Island and the Fort DeSoto/Shell Key area. "They're not just manatee zones," emphasizes Pam Leasure, senior environmental specialist for Pinellas County. "It's also protection for seagrass beds, plus there are safety considerations because there is some very shallow water out there."

The Hillsborough slow-speed zone runs from the Alafia to the Little Manatee River, extending out from the shoreline to a six-foot depth with 200-foot-wide higher speed corridors allowing easy access to major marinas and other locally important areas. "We set the six-foot depth line because that's the limit of where seagrass grows and manatees are most likely to be," said Chuck Coleman, program coordinator for marine safety. The county is waiting for final state approval on the placement of 142 signs but hopes to have them up by this fall, he adds.

A proposal for protection zones in Terra Ceia Bay in Manatee County was tentatively approved by the FWC in late May and another round of public hearings is scheduled for early July. The revised Terra Ceia recommendation calls for a 500-foot-wide slow-speed zone along the shore, with a 25-mph limit through Flounder Pass.

"That 500-foot zone encompasses travel paths for manatees and a significant portion of the seagrasses," notes Kelly Schratwieser, environmental specialist for the FWC's Bureau of Protected Species Management.

The FWC has also recommended new speed zones in the Alafia River, originally developed in 1979 in response to manatee use near a phosphate plant that no longer discharges warm water. The new zone, which extends from the mouth of the river to the I-75 bridge, is a compromise, Schratwieser said.

"Since there is no longer a warm water discharge, the FWC recommended the removal of the seasonal slow speed from the mouth of the river to the main shipping channel," Schratwieser said.

The commission will vote on 10 protection zones around the state in September, including the Alafia and Terra Ceia proposals.

In parts of Tampa Bay, the Manatee Awareness Coalition is distributing safe boating tools, including push poles, nautical charts and polarized sunglasses. More than 100 volunteers are participating in the comprehensive manatee protection program that includes the safety kit and boater education, as well as research projects to determine if volunteer efforts are as effective as regulations.

"Compliance has been pretty good," said Richard Flamm, associate research scientist with the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg.

Pinellas is working with Tampa BayWatch to educate boaters about manatees, placing kiosks at boating facilities and distributing boating kits. "Most people are willing to slow down if you point out how important it is," Leasure said. A highlight of the Pinellas regulations is its emphasis on testing, she adds. "We don't want to just set up zones, we need to test them to make sure they're working."

Another study in Pinellas is comparing boating behavior in the new zones pre- and post-installation of regulatory signs. "Boating behaviors are changing but we don't know if it's due to regulation or education," Leasure said. "We have a much bigger investment in regulation and there aren't enough deputies on the water to enforce the regulations that already exist."

As might be expected, an FMRI telephone survey showed that boaters support increased educational efforts rather than more regulations - but also indicates that greater knowledge about manatees leads to stronger support for regulations.

Tampa Bay counties, which were not included in the 1989 state mandate to designate manatee protection zones, are "my poster children" for the rest of the state, Schratwieser said. "The counties have taken the boat by the rope and done what they needed to do to protect manatees."

Natural Gas: FP&L Writing New Chapter for Manatee Plant

Florida Power & Light Company announced plans in January to expand its Manatee County power plant with a new $600-million natural gas-fueled generator and the addition of natural gas in combination with oil at two existing units. Plans to utilize the cleaner, cost-efficient fuel materialized with the arrival of a new natural gas pipeline on Florida's west coast and after a costly and protracted FP&L bid to use a controversial fuel called Orimulsion was rejected in 1996 by the Florida Cabinet amid environmental protests.

Built in the mid-1970s on a 9,500-acre site to accommodate future expansion, the Parrish plant near Bradenton currently has two oil-fueled units providing power to 340,000 customers. A new gas-fired Unit 3 utilizing highly efficient combined-cycle generating technology will help meet the increasing demands of an energy-hungry Gulf Coast region, serving an additional 235,000 customers. Construction of Unit 3 is slated to begin next year with the new unit online by 2005.

A natural gas combined-cycle plant produces electricity from two sources of energy instead of one, making it about 40 percent more efficient than a traditional steam plant. Energy is produced by combustion of natural gas in a turbine, similar to a jet engine. Energy is also produced by using the jet engine exhaust to make steam. Both sources of energy then drive turbines and electric generators to produce electricity.

Existing units 1 & 2 will be able to "co-fire" natural gas and oil by the end of this year. For the past 10 years, the plant generally has operated at 30 percent capacity with annual NOx emissions of about 7,000 tons, rising to 9,000 tons two years ago with increases in operation. Company officials expect emissions to go down as the new unit comes online and the older, less efficient units are used less. On top of that, every barrel of oil displaced by natural gas will further cut emissions. That's good news for the bay, which gets about 25-30 percent of its entire nitrogen load from atmospheric sources, including power plants, cars and trucks.

The new combined-cycle unit will use 75 percent less water than a conventional unit. Additionally, based on recommendations from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, FP&L is modifying its water withdrawals from the Little Manatee River to protect the river during low-flow periods. "Instead of taking a lot of water during a short period of time, we'll be taking little bits over a longer period," says Don Sayre, FP&L's major accounts manager.

Black Water May Have Silver Lining

Just weeks after making national headlines, the mysterious black water that some fishermen called a dead zone had apparently dissipated without significant long-term effects on coral reefs surrounding the Florida Keys.

"I don't think there will be any permanent long-term damage," said John Hunt, research administrator for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in the Florida Keys. "Some sponges died, but we're not certain that all species of sponges were affected in all locations, and even those losses are not conclusively connected to the black water." The black water stayed in Florida Bay until it dissipated with a minimum impact on oceanside coral reefs, adds Erich Bartels, staff biologist at Mote Marine Laboratory's Center for Tropical Research in Summerland Key. "The oceanside was phenomenal the whole time, with some of the clearest blue water we've seen all year."

At its largest, the black water stretched for hundreds of square miles, running from Naples to the Marquesas Keys west of Key West. First reported by fishermen, it was confirmed by satellite photos.

Initial reports suggested that nothing was living in the zone, earning it the "dead zone" moniker. "Fishermen told us that they found fish on the edge of the zone and nothing in it," Hunt said. "We have to believe them - they know where to find fish - but no one did any concentrated sampling efforts inside the zone."

Although Hunt doesn't believe that the "smoking gun" that caused the event will ever be absolutely determined, the black water may have been an extremely large occurrence of a relatively common diatom bloom. "It was the scale that got it noticed and then many statements were made that required exploration."

National attention focused on the mysterious event, however, may be a silver lining. Already baseline information and ongoing monitoring in Florida Bay have increased, said Dr. Erich Mueller, director of Mote's Tropical Research Center. "We're building more infrastructure now so we'll be better able to understand what happens in the future."

For instance, Mote had been sampling water from boats, but no equipment was left overnight. "Our working hypothesis is that the high levels of algae depleted dissolved oxygen at night," Mueller said. "We'll never be able to prove what happened, but now we can leave monitors in place overnight to measure water quality 24/7."

Baseline data on coral and sponge populations also were completed as part of the emergency efforts during the event. "We now have detailed video transects we didn't have before, so we can measure the impact of any future event," Bartels said.

The increased attention also is helping to involve more boaters in ongoing efforts to monitor events in the Gulf of Mexico. "We need to engage more fishermen and recreational boaters," Mueller said. "They could be an incredible network of marine observers if we could coordinate their activities."

Mote has created a prototype water and fish sampling kit and is hoping for funding through the state and private sectors. The kit includes a selection of water bottles, bags for fish and gloves to handle the samples all packed in a cooler that could be sold at tackle shops. "That way, if someone sees something, they can get samples immediately," Mueller said.

The ultimate goal would be to involve fishermen from Tampa Bay south, because much of what impacts Florida Bay and the Keys originates further north. In fact, some scientists believe the black water may have been fueled by dying red tide organisms, which provided a nutrient source for the massive algal bloom.

Still, the so-called dead zone is almost certainly more benign than red tide, which actually kills fish and causes respiratory problems in humans and manatees. "In hindsight, red tide is a much bigger issue and we still don't understand exactly how it works either," Hunt said.

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