Posted on 09/26/2016 6:02:01 AM PDT by BenLurkin
FWC Officer Courtney Baumgartner went to the Islamorada Library Beach, a small park off mile marker 81.5, around noon Friday when witnesses reported that a man in a creek was touching two adult manatees and their two calves. It’s against the law to molest manatees.
A witness advised the defendant that making contact with manatees was against the law, but the man reportedly declared, “I’m riding it!”
...
Massengale denied being warned away from the protected marine mammal and became “verbally combative,” FWC Officer Bobby Dube, an agency spokesman, said....
Although the FWC officer planned to give Massengale a notice to appear in court on the misdemeanor manatee violation, the defendant “continuously chanted ‘Take me to jail’ ”and said he would not show up for his case.
(Excerpt) Read more at bradenton.com ...
You do not touch, harass, feed, or give water to manatees, under pain of fines and jail.
EVERYBODY in Florida knows this.
My parents gave us a trip to the Bahamas for our 15th anniversary. Living in Fort Lauderdale, the Bahamas are a 20 minute (if that) flight away. They would watch our children and dog for us.
We spent the day snorkeling and hanging out at the pool. We turned on the TV in our room just in time to catch the local news out of Miami. There was a TV crew on Fort Lauderdale beach covering a family of manatees that had come to shore. Suddenly we were looking at our 9 year old son riding the back of the manatee with a voice-over warning that molesting the manatees - like this young man was doing - was punishable under Federal and State law.
Always dangerous to leave the kids with the grandparents...
“That was the ugliest mermaid I ever laid eyes on. I still hit it though.”
No.
It consists of Jimmy Buffet books and records.
Islamorada is in the Keys. It has one of the best resorts in Florida - the Islander Resort.
Creek? Are they supposed to go in fresh water? How could four manatees fit in a creek?
I will need your shipping address to send y'all these for Christmas...
Oh yes it is.
A human interacting with a manatee doesn't hurt it at all.
It's total nanny state nonsense that you've bought into.
Man is part of nature, and has every right to interact with it according to his own free will.
A manatee is harmless, and so is a human interacting with one...
He wasn’t “interacting” with it, he was attempting to ride it. When FWC tried to reason with him he asked to be hauled off to jail, so they did.
Since you believe he is part of nature, maybe he should “interact” with a gator when he posts bail.
Florida has the largest number of fresh water springs in the world. They run 72 degrees year round. When the weather cools the manatees swim into the spring heads to keep warm. These can be pretty small areas.
People also swim in the springs. Some springs have to be closed to people in the wintertime because there will be literally hundreds of manatee resting in the spring head. So many you can’t see the bottom.
They should call that manatime.
lulz....
My brother worked as a commercial diver in FL for years. Mostly doing in the water boat and ship repairs. At one marina a manatee took a liking to him and wouldn’t leave him alone. This manatee didn’t bother other divers. My brother reported this to the fish & game people so it was on the record. He moved and wasn’t around for about five years. On one occasion, years later, he was assigned a job at this marina and as soon as he hit the water the same manatee appeared and rubbed up against him. Funny as hell and a great thing to razz him with.
It doesn’t surprise me. They have been known to recognize people. They are very friendly, especially the calves. I’ve never swam with them, but I’ve seen them swim with kids many times at one of the springs near my house.
They may seem docile, but they are wild animals that weigh over 1000 pounds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.