Boat speed limits could be set in very shallow parts of Barnegat Bay by future conservation zones, the last item on the state's 10-point plan for bay restoration that's just starting to be debated.
High-speed boat traffic gets blamed by naturalists for driving nesting birds off sedge islands and tearing up shallow beds of eelgrass, the bay's dwindling underwater meadows that are nurseries for fish and crabs.
But advocates for boaters, fishermen and other bay users – who include vocal advocates for saving the bay — worry that conservation zones could go too far in shutting out traditional use of the shallows.
http://www.app.com/article/20111008...go-too-far?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage
High-speed boat traffic gets blamed by naturalists for driving nesting birds off sedge islands and tearing up shallow beds of eelgrass, the bay's dwindling underwater meadows that are nurseries for fish and crabs.
But advocates for boaters, fishermen and other bay users – who include vocal advocates for saving the bay — worry that conservation zones could go too far in shutting out traditional use of the shallows.
http://www.app.com/article/20111008...go-too-far?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage