9/12/1984 - Laserfiche WebLink

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S E P 1 2, 1984 BOOK 58 F° U ?49 Assistant County Attorney James Wilson explained that the resolution basically asks that certain areas of the Sebastian River, (those waters lying within Indian River County and extending from the Brevard County line and the intersection of the Sebastian River and the Intracoastal Waterway, south to the intersection of the Sebastian River and State Road 512), be designated as a manatee area and asks the Department of Natural Resources to do biological studies of the area to determine the need for placing speed restrictions on watercraft. Attorney Wilson reported that Mr. Pat Rose of the Dept. of Natural Resources anticipates the need for speed restrictions in this area and soon will be hiring biologists who will finish the study sometime in the spring. The manatees will begin migrating shortly and won't return to the river until the spring months at which time the results of the study will be available. Mr. Rose has also asked that the Commission help defray the costs involved in posting the speed limit signs. Although he was unable to give a cost estimate at this time, he did put a cap of $10,000 on the cost. Chairman Scurlock noted that the dollar amount was removed from the resolution and that we were just agreeing to assist. He hoped that we could institute some sort of joint participation between the Commission and some of the interested environmental groups to assist in the financing. Attorney Wilson reported that there have been 8-10 manatee deaths in the last few years which were directly attributable to motor watercraft. Commissioner Bowman asked if we had received any cooperation from Brevard County regarding the north fork in the Sebastian River and C-54, and Attorney Wilson explained that the DNR is also concerned about those areas and will be in contact with Brevard County. He suggested that, if the 15 M M M