Audubon submitted detailed comments when Everglades National Park  solicited feedback in preparation for drafting the preferred alternative for the General Management Plan for the Park’s marine waters.  After publishing a study that clearly documents the prevalence and severity of seagrass prop scarring throughout Florida Bay’s shallow waters, the Park released a set of four preliminary alternatives that ranged from continuing current management (no action) to establishing zones throughout Florida Bay that would better protect shallow habitats that provide essential wildlife habitat.

Audubon’s long history of research in Florida Bay and nearby wetlands give our scientists critical insight to problems currently plaguing the Park’s waters, such as a decline in wading bird nesting success as a result of boats operating very close to nesting islands, which scares birds off their nests and makes their eggs and chicks more vulnerable to predation. We called for the Park to incorporate better protection for submerged habitat and wildlife into their management plan by creating buffer zones around all mangrove keys to reduce disturbance to nesting birds, and managing Park waters by depth so that boats with large motors inappropriate for shallow water are not tearing through them. Instead, such boats can traverse the more sensitive areas by poling and trolling.

Our recommendations are fully outlined in our letter and reflect resource protection needed if the Park’s waters are to remain critical habitat for wildlife such as juvenile lobsters and roseate spoonbills, as well as remain a national treasure “untrammeled by man” as the Wilderness Act prescribes, for generations to come.