Slow Down and Save the Manatees

Guest post written by David Pearson, a Miami public relations consultant who helped then-Governor Bob Graham initiate his “Save the Manatee” campaign.

One night, Jimmy Buffett gave a concert in Tallahassee, and Gov. Bob Graham took his teenage daughter Kendall. Buffett’s ribald lyrics, of course, were well known to everyone except, apparently, Graham, whose musical tastes ran more toward Rodgers and Hammerstein. One number particularly popular with the FSU student body was called  “Let’s Get Drunk and Screw.” Jimmy was to tell me later that when he walked out of his backstage dressing room and saw the Governor there with his teenage daughter, he almost fainted with embarrassment.

It must not have fazed Graham, however, because he asked Buffett if he would lead a statewide campaign to preserve the endangered manatee—a freshwater mammal Jimmy featured in one of his maritime songs (“…sometimes I see me as an old manatee, heading south as the water grows colder…”)

Buffett agreed and naturally, Graham called a couple of his loyal supporters to help form the Save the Manatee Committee, which included David Pearson, Miami attorney Ron Book, and Pat Rose – who ran the program. 

Knowing television stations had a required number of minutes to provide public service airtime, we prevailed on Buffett to record a series of 30-second TV spots. A video production company produced several public service announcements, which  became a Pearson/Buffett enterprise:  I wrote the scripts and we filmed my family’s 17-foot Mako with my two daughters Kate and Maggie aboard.  My son Chris was at the wheel, speeding down the Intracoastal Waterway past the “SLOW DOWN FOR THE MANATEES” sign.  Pointing to the boat, Buffett said “That’s just want I’m talking about, speeding through this manatee zone.”

The campaign worked pretty well. Before long, the Save the Manatee Club had several chapters and hundreds of members statewide. The endangered mammals’ numbers have grown over the years to the point that the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is now recommending the animal be removed from the endangered species category.

Of course, the marine industry is all for that.

My question is simple: Why not wait until manatees are not endangered before removing them from the endangered species list? After all, they’re a long way from being out of danger due to the morons still speeding through Florida’s waterways.