(b) (7) (ii) –
Commercial manta ray viewing operation permit eligibility shall be subject to the following: At the time of application for a commercial manta ray viewing operation permit is a made, the applicant must have engaged in commercial manta ray viewing operations for at least four consecutive years, as evidenced by submission of records.
Proposed Edit:
At the time of application for a commercial manta ray viewing operation permit is made, the applicant must have engaged in commercial manta ray viewing during the past year, as evidenced by submission of records.
I am proposing that anyone with a commercial permit where the words “manta ray” or “manta rays” appear on the permit will be allowed to continue operating, as long as they have actively done so in the past year. Tour operators that have been approved to run manta ray tours, and actively run them, should be able to continue to do so unless there is a clear reason why banning them would be necessary. In this case, there is no data to indicate whether a specific amount of boats would be safe, so we should be focused on addressing the in-water safety issues rather than taking actions that cause severe financial harm and risk putting companies out of business.
I think the past year is fine, however I’d would agree to the past four years