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Robert LeMasters, commercial fisherman from Sebastian, <br />expressed his opinion that this whole manatee thi.ng is inhumane. <br />You are trying to save something that is starving to death. The <br />grass beds are 60/65% gone, and if you are going to save the <br />manatees, you must first address the pollution that is occurring <br />and is killing the grass beds. He felt it is time the state puts <br />the cart behind the horse instead of ahead of it. <br />Charles Webb informed the Board that he lives at the end of <br />a channel over near the river with a bunch of manatees. There <br />were 5 of them six weeks ago and he has some movies of them. Now <br />only 4 are left and of the remainder, 3 have scars on their backs <br />from propellors. He agreed with Mr. LeMasters that the manatee <br />has to eat, and if we really want to save them, they have to be <br />able to eat and have a place to hide out. He noted that there <br />are more and more manatees taking refuge in places where they <br />didn't used to hang out, such as the channel where he lives. <br />There are a lot less commercial fishermen than there used to be, <br />but now you have a lot of boaters running around at high speed <br />who don't know what they are doing. If we are going to control <br />the manatee population, we must control the areas they feed in, <br />and there is no reason for people going 50 mph over grass beds 3' <br />deep. People whiz down narrow channels where they are not <br />supposed to, and Mr. Webb expressed his belief that people obey <br />the law only when there is a uniformed officer visible. He <br />personally did not see where commercial fishermen should even be <br />involved here. They know what they are doing and they do not <br />crash their boats and damage their equipment. He felt the answer <br />is to place a few sensible restriction on such things as whizzing <br />around at 40/50 mph for no reason, but unless we have some <br />enforcement and public acceptance of it, it it just another <br />compliance with something Tallahassee wants to do so we get it <br />off their backs. <br />Judith DeLaney Vallee, Executive Director of Save the <br />Manatee Club of Orlando, spoke of the exceeding importance of the <br />MAY 81990 43 BooK f';1Lc 4U' <br />-- - <br />