MANATEES & RODMAN

The Florida Legislature is back in session and the Florida Defenders of the Environment (FDE) are pulling out all the stops in their attempt to mislead the uninformed and sway public opinion toward their insupportable position that it is quite all right to destroy a wonderful environment in order to create another one that they want.

Their latest ploy is the unfortunate death of a manatee in the Rodman Reservoir's Buckman Lock. They would have you believe that the Rodman water control structures are virtual killing machines. Unfortunately, several of Florida's larger newspapers love to take items like these and sensationalize them. Let's take a look at the facts of the manatee problem and put things in their proper perspective.

The record of manatee deaths attributed to the Rodman structure examined: First it is very difficult to obtain correlating data between agencies as to exact numbers, but these differences only vary by one or two, therefore we have chosen the one that has the highest mortality rate attributed to the Rodman. The data is from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Florida Marine Research Institute. July 1986-1999 Manatee Salvage Data Base, Summary Report, and USGS Biological Resources Division. Sirenia Project. 1974-July 1986. Manatee Salvage Data Base.

The most recent death publicized in Rodman was in February 1999. This brings the 1974-1999 total deaths attributed to Rodman's structures to 10. We have no figures for other floodgate / canal locks in Florida for 1999. Manatee deaths by county due to gates / locks (1974-1998) is as follows:

A quick glance at the list of fatalities makes one say, "Hey! We're not so bad after all". It is even more interesting when you consider that most of the water control structures in South Florida are maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers and not the State of Florida. With their deep pockets, the Army Corps should be able to provide better protection for the manatees such as sophisticated lock safety systems and massive iron spillway guards.

As the FDE says, every death of a manatee is important, especially if it is not necessary. Between 1991 and 1994 there were no deaths at Rodman, despite the fact that the lock tender's log indicated as many as 20 manatee sightings in Buckman Lock in one month. But there were 35 deaths in other locks and dam structures in the state. Because of this high death count, the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Corps of Engineers began development of protection systems for water control structures. These systems may or may not be adaptable for Rodman. Several times in the past the Office of Greenways and Trails has investigated workable alternative systems for protecting Rodman's manatees. No action was taken due to the political pressure being exerted by the FDE to destroy the Rodman Reservoir. No monetary allocations for improvements could make it through the system with the threat of Rodman's possible destruction. They said why waste the money?

These numbers of manatee death by structures pale by the total of other deaths caused through human activity. The total deaths in Florida in this same time frame by :

The FDE wants to destroy the Rodman Reservoir and restore the narrow river. Confined within the narrow river banks, manatees would have no chance against boat propellers. It would seem that a manatee death is only of interest to the FDE if they think it furthers their political agenda of destroying Rodman Reservoir.

We would rather see the proper protections installed and let the manatee roam freely in the Rodman Reservoir with the fishermen, canoeists, and bird watchers.

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Recent articles in the local papers report the deaths of two male manatees near Buckman lock. One of the manatees was discovered August 21 and the other Sept. 26. The story seems to have originated in Gainesville (where else?) and the other papers picked it up from the associated press hot line.

Neither manatee had cuts or broken bones that could be attributed to their being struck by water craft or being damaged by the lock water control structure. Since they were found near Rodman, those who wish to destroy the reservoir just had to find some way of blaming the deaths on Rodman, never mind trying to discover if the manatees died of some disease or for some other biological reason.

The theory proposed is that the manatees got sucked into the underwater intake ports used to fill the lock with water and drowned. Some of the articles went even further and hinted that the Office of Greenways and trails (OGT) didn't know whether or not there were protective grills over the port openings.

We thought this was a ludicrous accusation, so we double checked. There are two groups of ports: one group on the upstream side of the lock used for filling the lock and the other group on the downstream side to empty the lock. The ports on the upstream side of the lock have heavy metal grills over them to prevent debris (and manatees) from being sucked into the water control machinery. The grills work! During times when aquatic vegetation and floating debris are near the locks the intake port grills often become clogged and must be cleared for the locks to function properly.

The downstream group of ports do not have grills over them, but neither do they suck so it would be impossible for anything to be sucked into them. The water comes out of these downstream ports with such force that anything that might have wandered into them during inactivity is immediately ejected. We are told that manatees do not like confined spaces so it is hardly likely that one let alone two would have suddenly decided to go cave diving. Even if they had, they would have quickly been evicted.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Florida Defenders of the Environment and the Save the Manatee Club are always anxious to blame Rodman Reservoir and its water control structures for the death or injury of any damaged manatees found anywhere near the area. The same people never try to put the deaths into perspective, but would like for you to believe that Rodman is the only place where manatees die.

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Rodman's Manatee Traffic

The February manatee fatality in Buckman Lock was sad. Accidents do happen! There had been no Rodman manatee accidents since 1995. This accident-free record can only be attributed to the alert dedication of the personnel who tend the water control structures at Rodman. The lockmasters do an excellent job of monitoring the manatee traffic through the locks in order to protect them. They even keep a daily log of the count through the locks. They try to make Rodman a safe place for both man and beast. Well Done!

As many as 20 manatees have locked through Buckman Lock in a single month. Below is a table, compiled from the lock master's log, listing the manatees that locked through in any particular month. There is no data for 1996 because the locks were close during the summer months for electrical repairs caused by a lightning strike.

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BUCKMAN LOCK

IS CLOSED

Oct. 2003

Buckman lock was opened in early 2003 with the newly installed manatee protection devices operational.  The protective grills covering the intake ports failed in October and need to be replaced.  Buckman lock will be closed until this is accomplished.

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