Miami-Dade Commissioner calls manatees dumb

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E-mail Letters to the Editor: Heralded

 

Miami-Dade Commissioner Natacha Seijas

111 NW 1st Street

Suite 320

Miami, FL 33128

Phone: 305-375-4831

Fax: 305-375-2011

 

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Posted on Mon, Nov. 22, 2004

 

MIAMI-DADE

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/10242269.htm

 

 

'Dumb' manatees get a drubbing

 

BY DANIEL A. RICKER

 

watchdogreport1

 

During a discussion last week about Miami-Dade's manatee protection plan,

some county commissioners raised concerns that its rules are overly

restrictive.

 

The issue was revision of the county manatee plan to bring its language into

conformity with state legislation passed in 2002 -- a legal requirement.

Wildlife officials described the changes as minor.

 

Commissioner Natacha Seijas, a critic of some environmental guidelines,

noted she had some manatees in the canal behind her home. ''As dumb as they

always are, they keep floating back and forth, and I need Department of

Environmental Resource Management to come and pick them up,'' Seijas said,

referring to the county's environmental agency.

 

''I am not a lover of manatees,'' Seijas said later. ``As far as I am

concerned, they are from Cuba. . . . I am glad they are here, [but] I want

to know how big that herd is because if that herd is way too big, it is time

to find something else to do with it.''

 

Commissioner Bruno Barreiro said he was in favor of manatee protection but

worries that the regulations might impede construction of new marinas.

 

''There is a huge shortage of [boat] slips,'' he said. ``Slip prices are

sky-high.''

 

Susan Markley, chief of DERM's natural resource division, said commissioners

still have the final say on requests for ``major marine facilities that come

to this board.''

 

She also noted the county would have to consider the impact of any new

marina on mangroves, sea grass and water depth.

 

Said Commissioner Jose ''Pepe'' Diaz: ``It is one thing to protect and to

look at how to nurture these particular animals, but the other thing is not

to go overboard and take it to extremes.''

 

The County Commission ultimately passed the changes on a 9-4 voice vote,

with concerns raised by Seijas, Barreiro, Diaz and Commissioner Rebeca Sosa.

 

Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation

Commission, told the Watchdog Report Friday that the required changes to the

plan were small ''housekeeping'' revisions.

 

He said as of the last count, the number of manatees in the herd ``is at an

all-time high.''