Even if a legal boater hits and injures a manatee, we want them to feel compelled to call in authorities to rescue the animal and not flee for fear of prosecution. Now if boaters are speeding in a slow zone, well, laws are there for that.

263

There actually wasn't a danger to the public during that time.

174

It's a carefully calculated effort on the part of the people that manatees are in the way of.

160

It's going to come in pieces because that's how our accounting is coming to us.

139

It's disappointing, it's wrongheaded but it's what we expected because this is their intent and they're following through.

120

All a manatee needs, we have found, is a chance to get out of the way of an oncoming boat. We have scientific proof that manatees can sense a boat and attempt to move away. A fast boat doesn't give the slow moving animal an opportunity to get out of the way.

110

There are four main areas of concern where manatees tend to live. The northeast or upper St. Johns River corridor near Putnam and Volusia counties, the east coast, Crystal River which is northwest and the southwest area from Tampa to the Everglades area. Two of those areas, the two small ones, Crystal River and the upper St. Johns River, are doing well in those regions.

109

They often venture out, go farther than the closest available food resources. But it's a concern that the closest food source won't be available to them this year. They have energy budgets that they don't want to overuse, and if the closest source is in bad shape, they'll have to travel farther to find food.

98