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40 A C1 Indian River County Manatee Protection and Boating 5arety Comprehensive Management 14.111 Wabasso Causeway A 600 foot wide, year-round slow speed zone buffers the west shore of the IRL in the vicinity of Wabasso Causeway (C.R. 510). A year-round slow speed zone also extends under the Causeway bridge to the northern point of Wabasso Island. However, the southside of Wabasso Causeway (600 feet from the west shore) and continuing to the southwest shoreline of Wabasso Island is currently unregulated. In October 1995, the residents of Wabasso Island and Fi.0 staff expressed nuisance and safety concerns relating to PWC usage at Wabasso Causeway Park. In response, the BCC directed the Marine Advisory/ Narrows Watershed Action Committee (MANWAC) to review speed zones in the area and offer recommendations to the BCC. The MANWAC recommended that the BCC adopt a boating safety zone of 300 hundred feet, encompassing the western shoreline of Wabasso Island and continuing 300 hundred feet north and south of Wabasso Causeway. Boat speeds were reduced from "unregulated" to "slow speed" within this zone. This modification is depicted in Figure 11. Modifications Considered but Rejected City of Vero Beach The City of Vero Beach requested a change in the ICW Channel speed zone between the Merrill Barber Bridge and the 17b Street Causeway, Currently, boaters are required to slow down to a "no wake" speed underneath each bridge. Many boaters increase their boat speed between these two "slow speed/minimum wake" zones. Creating a year round "slaw speed/minimum wake" zone between the two bridges is not supported by data on manatee mortality or injury. Neither is it supported by boating accident data; therefore, the zone designation between the Merrill Barber Bridge and the 170' Street Causeway will remain as it currently exists. Currently, a year-round "slow speed" zone extends north of the Merrill -Barber Bridge to Channel Marker 135. This "slow speed" zone applies to the ICW, in addition to the surrounding waters outside the ICW. As such, this speed zone designation is overly restrictive, and should be amended to increase the maximum speed to 30 miles per hour north of the bridge in the ICW. There .are several reasons why this speed zone should be revised. First, although manatee use has been documented in the area between the Merrill -Barber Bridge and Channel Marker 135, manatee use of the ICW is infrequent. Second, increasing the maximum speed within the ICW encourages boaters to travel in a linear pattern to utilize the ICW, thereby reducing the impacts to seagrass beds along the fringe of Fritz Island. Moreover, linear travel patterns increase boating safety. This proposed modification is depicted in Figure 9. Jungle Trail Narrows The section of the IRI. located approximately one-half (1/2) mile south of the Wabasso Causeway (C.R. 510) continuing south to Channel Marker 149 is referred to as the "Jungle Trail Narrows" (a.k.a. "the Narrows"). In the ICW Channel, which encompasses the majority Community Development Department Page 44