December 9, 2013 — The watery world of coral reefs, undersea shipwrecks and mangrove shorelines of Biscayne National Park has become the scene of a fight over the rights of the public and the needs of nature in our national parks.
Like conflicts over swamp buggies at Big Cypress National Preserve and snowmobiles at Yellowstone National Park, the controversy concerns whether too many people in motorized vehicles — in this case, boats — are harming the natural treasures for which the park was created.
Public meetings begin Monday at the University of Miami on a proposal from the park's leadership to restrict anchoring, fishing and other activities in the park, which encompasses southern Biscayne Bay. But while the plan would impose some limits on fishing, it drops the idea of a 16-square-mile no-fishing zone, a plan that had been hailed by environmentalists and bitterly opposed by fishing groups.
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