Now, he says, habitat issues water pollution, real estate development, farm runoff, water management must come to the fore. Habitat in many ways is going to hell in a handbasket, he says. At the top of his list of habitat busters is the South Florida Water Management District, which regulates the water flow out of Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades and into canals, rivers and estuaries where manatees live. The district is responsible for balancing the water needs of people with those of the environment. He says the cycle of holding and discharging water causes instability in the manatee s environment.
Stallings downplays the settlement s impact on boating.
The increase in boating is a huge tide that this lawsuit is not going to turn around, he says. We re just directing it away from critical manatee areas. The industry argues that a record manatee count of 3,276 Jan. 5-6 proves what it has been saying all along the manatee population is growing. That figure, derived from air surveys of waterways where manatees live and travel, is up from 2,222 in 2000 and a previous high of 2,639 in 1996. Dale Weatherspoon, who tracks manatees for the Marine Industries Association of South Florida, faults the FWS for failing to set a target figure that would tell the agency when the manatee population has recovered, and maintains that the push for sanctuaries and additional speed zones is based more on emotion than science.