For the past five years, the manatee plate has outsold all others. Last year, it outsold 47 other specialty places, including ones for the Challenger space shuttle memorial, Florida panther and various universities. In fact, manatee plates account for more than half of Florida's 858,000 specialty plates sold since the program began. Humans are my favorite mammal. Marinas and boat slips don't kill manatees.
Irresponsible boaters do.
To those irresponsible boaters who kill manatees, add irresponsible county commissioners. The Cabinet placed the blame for the Sarasota Yacht Club not being given its expansion permit squarely on the shoulders of the Sarasota County Commission. We can't approve marinas without using some influence to encourage these manatee-protection plans. From here on out we're going to be very consistent. Perhaps a suit brought in January against state and federal agencies by nearly two dozen environmental groups, accusing the government of failing to protect manatees, has gotten the Cabinet's attention.