News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 11, 2004
Town Hall Meeting Discusses Plans to Bring Personal Watercraft
Back to Biscayne National Park
Petition Was Only One of Several Options, Coalition Explains
Contact:
Brian Berry, 202-777-3524
Homestead, FL—Local water sports enthusiasts
and business owners filled a town hall meeting today convened
to address the issue of personal watercraft at Biscayne National
Park. At this meeting, the BOAT Biscayne Coalition explained
that just one day earlier, the National Park Service responded
to the petitioned filed in late August with the Department
of the Interior and the National Park Service urging a scientific
study to reevaluate the personal watercraft ban at the park.
The petition was declined.
“It is disappointing that without any consideration
for the more than 2,000 local residents who have contacted
the park over the past three months in favor of bringing personal
watercraft back, that the National Park Service declined the
petition,” stated Jeff Ludwig of the Personal Watercraft
Industry Association – one of the BOAT Biscayne Coalition’s
members. “We’ve known all along that the answer
to our request could go only one of two ways, so we have been
mindful that we might have to explore other options. Yesterday’s
announcement was nothing more than a detour that tells us
we will need to take a different approach towards bringing
a fair and equitable solution to the nearly 18,000 South Floridians
affected by this ban.
“If you are pro-environment, then you should support
the environmental assessment study. These studies are designed
to determine the impact that personal watercraft will have
on the local environment. Fourteen other national parks have
conducted environmental assessments in the past two years
and every single one of them has found that personal watercraft
should not be banned on waters that allow other types of motorized
boating,” he concluded.
The 11:00 a.m. meeting at the Homestead Family YMCA was organized
by the BOAT Biscayne Coalition (www.boatbiscayne.com), a group
of local boaters, dealers, two national recreation associations
(the American Watercraft Association and the BlueRibbon Coalition)
and the trade association representing personal watercraft
(PWC) manufacturers (Personal Watercraft Industry Association).
Original supporters of the coalition also include the Marine
Industries Association of Florida and the Florida Water Access
Coalition.
“There’s no justification for the ban,”
stated Wiley Russell of the American Watercraft Association.
“There was never any local study – scientific
or otherwise - to determine a need to ban personal watercraft.
Thousands of local residents and business owners have spoken,
they’ve asked for our help and they want this unfair
ban to end. We’re not going anywhere until the environmental
assessment begins,” he concluded.
Local residents who have invested in a PWC as their family
boat are growing impatient. “It’s crazy that the
park or anyone would try to block an environmental assessment
of personal watercraft,” said Danny DiNicola of Miami.
“The study would put this prolonged debate to rest.
This is blatant discrimination, and we’re blowing the
whistle,” he said. “There’s too many of
us affected by it. We’re voters, we’re taxpayers,
and we’re not going to stand for it.”
Local business owners say that the ban is bad for business
and join local residents in calling on the park to immediately
begin an objective, science-based study which advocates believe
will lead to a lifting of the ban.
“My customers and my business are negatively affected
by this unfair ban,” said Dave Bamdas of Riva Motorsports,
who also attended the town hall meeting. “Before the
ban, I estimate that 90 percent of my customers used to ride
in Biscayne National Park. “Four years of discrimination
is four too many,” he continued. “How I am supposed
to continue to sell these boats and keep my employees when
Biscayne National Park arbitrarily decides to target personal
watercraft meanwhile allowing all other boats – even
tankers – to come and go as they please?”
Riva Motorsports is one of the largest multi-line personal
watercraft dealerships in the world. It has locations in Pompano
Beach and Key Largo and employs approximately 100 local residents.
Biscayne National Park, located in Miami south of Key Biscayne
and north of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (which
allow PWC), banned personal watercraft use in 2000 by enacting
locally a federal National Park Service rule that allowed
individual parks to prohibit PWC use without a local, site-specific
scientific review. This federal rule claims that personal
watercraft adversely impact the environment, meanwhile, these
allegations have been discredited by every subsequent PWC
review that has occurred in an individual park since. For
four years, tens of thousands of boating families have been
banned from Biscayne National Park. All other types of recreational
and commercial boats – even large commercial shipping
vessels – are allowed on the park’s waters. Only
PWC are singled out in the ban.
In 2003 there were 8,479 registered PWC in Miami-Dade County,
7,607 in Broward and 1,643 in Monroe – a combined 17,729
in the tri-county area. Statewide there were 106,356 registered
PWC.
The environmental assessment would be the first step in bringing
PWC back to Biscayne National Park. A formal rulemaking process
then follows the assessment. To date, 14 other national parks
have completed a site-specific environmental assessment and
every one of them has concluded that there is no reason to
ban PWC on waters that allow other types of motor boating.
In the past two years, seven of those 14 parks have completed
the rulemaking process and today welcome families who own
and enjoy personal watercraft.
Modern personal watercraft are one of the most environmentally
friendly motorized vessels on the water today. Technological
advancements achieved in models sold since 1998 have accounted
for a 75 percent reduction in emissions and a 70 percent reduction
in sound. All models sold today comply with federal and state
emissions and sound requirements. Some PWC can seat up to
four people, are equipped with ample storage space, and can
tow a water skier or wake board. The typical buyer today is
around 40 years old. In 2002, the three-person models accounted
for more than 75 percent of total sales nationwide, which
indicates that people are purchasing PWC as a family-friendly
alternative to a larger, costlier power boat.
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More information can be found at:
BOAT Biscayne (www.boatbiscayne.com)
American Watercraft Association
(www.awahq.org)
BlueRibbon Coalition
(www.sharetrails.org)
Personal Watercraft Industry
Association (www.pwia.org)
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