Animal rights activists were outraged last summer when a video of a fishing boat off the Panhandle hauling aboard an exhausted manta ray went viral. The endangered species was then sent to a SeaWorld half a world away, in Abu Dhabi.
Bills have been filed in the Florida House and Senate to prevent that from happening again.
The measure is called the Manta Protection Act. It would outlaw collecting and transporting endangered or threatened marine species for "education or exhibition purposes."
The sponsor in the House is Democrat Lindsay Cross of Pinellas County. Cross said the animals are listed under the Endangered Species Act for a reason.
"Their numbers are either so low that they face extinction or that, without intervention and protection, they will make it to the endangered list," Cross said.
"We also have protections at the state level to make sure that we don't lose some of these special, you know, plant and animals that bring value, their intrinsic value, maybe economic value for people who do bird-watching or scuba diving, but they deserve to live in their natural habitats," she said.
Cross said this would close a loophole in state law that allows the capture of endangered species for entertainment purposes. It has bipartisan support, with a companion bill filed in the Senate.
The moves came after several lawmakers sent a letter to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, asking it to revoke similar permits. That never happened, Cross said.
"There have been some proactive steps that FWC has taken, but they're really delaying action on this until commission meetings that happen in the spring and the summer. And we really want urgency on this," Cross added.
Cross said it wouldn't affect endangered marine species such as coral that are being taken to eventually be reintroduced to the wild.
"We have nonprofit groups like The (Florida) Aquarium or Mote Marine, who are doing fantastic work in trying to replant some of these ecosystems. And that is because these species just are on the brink of complete destruction or extinction," she said.
"So this is really focused on exhibition or education purposes only for specific marine animal species that are threatened or endangered."
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