Mosquito Lagoon Fishing Endangered

[Onshore]

MOSQUITO LAGOON ACCESS MAY BE LOST

NASA is considering the construction of an entirely new 'commercial' launch pad on the west shoreline of the Mosquito Lagoon, in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Mosquito Lagoon is home to some of the largest Redfish in the US and supports an extensive sports fishery for Sea Trout, Black Drum and Jack Crevelle also. The pending Florida state record Redfish was taken in Mosquito Lagoon and weighed 53 lbs.


Locally, the new development idea hasn't gone over too well with fishermen, birders and conservationists. It would result in the closing of the southern half of the Mosquito Lagoon to all entry, from the Haulover Canal south. A recent public hearing drew overwhelming opposition to the new site and support for using one of the many unused Air Force sites.


If this were the only site available that would be one thing, but the Canaveral Air Force Station is littered with old, no longer used launch pads, many of which could be adapted for the use of the commercial launch area. The Air Force has not launched a rocket from those sites for years and refurbishing many of those would not impact access to the lagoon. NASA evidently is unwilling to ask the Air Force for permission to do this. Apparently, they would rather spend $40,000,000 to develop a new site rather than a quarter of that to refurbish one of the unused launch pads.

Here's a link to the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge:
http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/ (http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/)

There are several groups circulating petitions to save these valuable natural areas. If you would like to add your name to thousands of other sportsmen, birders and conservationists; here is a link to the one I recently signed: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protectmosquitolagoon?e (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/protectmosquitolagoon?e)

[bad_angler]

Hi Bill,

If you know of a link to maps of the impacted area please point them to me or post here. I have read the NASA proposals and suggested areas but there was no delineation of the areas on the NASA maps..just the different proposed launch sites. I've some Mosquito folks talking about the issue in another conservation forum. I'd like to post the maps to others not familiar with the lagoon.

ba

[Onshore]

Unfortunately, since 9/ll, most maps of the Cape Canaveral area are completely devoid of all details of the NASA, Air Force and Navy sites. Here's a link that gives you a fair outline map of the Mosquito Lagoon, Banana and Indian River areas. It's from Capt. Troy Nash's web site
http://www.redfishing.com/directions.html

Also, this site for the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge has a decent map of the southern section.
http://www.fws.gov/merrittisland/MosquitoLagoon/index.html

Here's another site with more information and a better map (CCAFS Map); http://www.robsv.com/cape/
Note that the only active sites are within the triangle of NASA Causeway, ICBM Road and Cape Road.
Those are the sites used by NASA for the Shttles, etc. The remainder of the sites shown are old Air Force launch sites and haven't been used for years. The area of the Navy's Polaris Sub pens is in the lower or southern end of the complex and is noted on the map.