Endangered manatees wintering at the warm waters of Tampa Electric's Big Bend power plant will benefit from new speed zones in the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve. (Aerial photo by Jamie Woodlee, Tampa Electric Manatee Viewing Center; close up by Suzanne Tarr, SMC)

By Suzanne Tarr, Staff Biologist

It’s been a long time coming! On October 19, 2005, the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners kept their commitment to the public and manatees by unanimously approving a manatee protection speed zone in the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Over 300 manatees call Tampa Bay home in the winter, passing the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve on their way to Tampa Electric Company’s Big Bend power plant. Year round, a subset of these manatees travel to the Preserve to feed in lush seagrass beds and to give birth to and nurse calves in the quiet back waters, including the Little Manatee River. Protecting the preserve within the six-foot depth contour line in the zone not only protects manatees from physical harm, but also protects important seagrass habitat and calving grounds.

In 2001, the Hillsborough County Commissioners passed a resolution allowing the Cockroach Bay Users Group (C-BUG) to develop, implement, monitor, and assess an education program to compliment a voluntary slow speed zone in the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve. After three years, the program was to be reviewed by the county and if C-BUG could not keep their commitment and/or if the program was not successful, the county was to pursue regulatory measures.

Vector, a manatee in SMC's adoption program, has been known to frequent the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve. (Photo courtesy FWCC)

In January 2005, Save the Manatee Club, other organizations, and the public gathered to review C-BUG’s program. Unfortunately, the program was not successful and the vast majority of the comments recommended the county move forward with regulatory zones. In addition, county staff and law enforcement, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission biologists and law enforcement, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection also agreed that regulatory zones would benefit manatees and habitat.

The new speed restrictions in the preserve will not affect those who are true stewards to the resource, because these boaters were already complying with the slow speed under the voluntary program. However, those who are not good stewards and have been continuously speeding through the area over shallow grass beds, can now be compelled by law enforcement to slow down. Education is still necessary, especially with the increase in development along Hillsborough County’s eastern shoreline, and the thousands of new bay users these developments bring.

Save the Manatee Club applauds the Hillsborough County Commissioners and the community for putting the resource first and promoting stewardship for manatees, habitat, and for all bay users.

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