Saving the Gentle Giants – Manatee Protection Sensors for Flood Control Gates and Navigation
Presented by Larry Taylor
HBOI-FAU
This 2012 Ocean Science Lecture is now available as a streaming YouTube video. Click the video window below to play.
About the Lecture
Engineers at Harbor Branch have developed two unique sensor systems that prevent manatees from being injured in flood control gates and navigation locks. Join Larry Taylor, Project Manager for the Manatee Protection Systems Program since 1997, as he describes these innovative solutions and the successful installations at 18 flood gates and 8 boat locks.
About the Speaker
Larry Taylor is Coordinator, Research Programs/Services in Harbor Branch’s Ocean Technology Program. He has an A.S. in Electronics Technology from Indian River State College. Larry came to Harbor Branch in 1982 and worked for a decade with engineers Bob Tusting and Frank Caimi on diverse projects such as our pioneering work with underwater lasers, structured illumination, electrical stimulus samplers, and optical systems for measuring bioluminescence.
In 1994-1995, Larry worked under Andy Clark with engineer Pat Turner to design the prototype for the Manatee Piezo-Electric Detection (PED) Sensor System for vertical lift gates. In 1996, the first complete sensor system was installed at Structure S-26 on the Miami Canal. Larry and Pat next designed and demonstrated the Manatee Piezo-Electric Copolmyer (PECOP) Sensor System for navigation locks.
By the end of 1997, Larry had inherited the program management duties for providing these two unique systems to South Florida Water Management District, Army Corps of Engineers, and Florida Department of Environmental Protection. He formed a dedicated Manatee Protection Systems Team. Together they have built and installed systems along the southeast coast of Florida and around Lake Okeechobee with contracts totaling more than six million dollars.
Johnson Education Center, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University, 5600 US 1 North, Fort Pierce, FL. Telephone 772-242-2506.
