NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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)