![]() Soon he started working with TV shows such as The Amazing Race, CSI: Miami, and Burn Notice and a number of projects for Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel. After doing an educational show about frogs for New York City's PBS affiliate, he began to think of expanding his business. Geological Survey, the Department of Environmental Protection, scientists from Louisiana State University - travel the Everglades to conduct studies. Back then, he helped government agencies and research organizations - the U.S. A retired airline pilot, he began to airboat professionally in 2001. ![]() Matthews is one of those small operators. Kennon says that, since 1980, the area has gone from roughly 25 companies to 2,500. Dozens of smaller companies have popped up on the Trail all the way through to Naples and into Everglades City. Acting public information officer Mary Plumb says the NPS is evaluating "how many, if any, of the four operations are necessary and appropriate for visitors."Īnd competition is growing in Miami. Since the addition of the East Everglades to Everglades National Park in 1989, the NPS has considered limiting access to parts of the fragile ecosystem. At $20 a head, those numbers have added up to big money.īut the airboating territory might shrink. Overall, Kennon estimates, about a half-million people a year ride the airboats in South Florida. Coopertown entertains about 90,000 visitors per year - 75 percent of them from outside the country. Though airboat companies exist as far north as Orlando, the most popular operators are along the Trail. Those four hold a virtual monopoly on roughly 100,000 acres of land, ten times the size of Manhattan. Since 1989, the National Park Service (NPS) has allowed only four companies - Coopertown, Safari Park, Gator Park, and Airboat USA - to operate in Everglades National Park. Coopertown, the oldest concern in the East Everglades, opened for business in 1945 Safari Park started up in 1968. The South Florida airboat industry dates to the years immediately following World War II. "Everybody's tried to help him, but he wants to come in and take over. "The only one stirring up trouble here is Gary Matthews," he says. According to Jesse Kennon, owner of Coopertown Airboats, Matthews has become persona non grata among airboaters. Matthews lobs accusations at his competitors they deny them. It's a soap opera set in a sleepy part of the swamp that includes profanity, cops, and tens of thousands of dollars in profit. "They've tried about seven times to get me put out of business." "All we've tried to do is run a successful business," Matthews says. Since then, he says, the other companies along the Tamiami Trail - namely Coopertown Airboats and Everglades Safari Park - have made his life a living hell. He runs private tours in Everglades National Park for Airboat USA, a company he purchased about a decade ago. It's a bloodbath," says the 61-year-old Matthews, who is tall and bald, with a face tanned from decades under the sun in the swamp. Threats, intimidation, theft, and underhanded tactics are as abundant in the Everglades as lilies and gators, he says. Alligators, pythons, cottonmouth snakes, and snapping turtles lurk in the marshes, ready to strike at a moment's notice.īut to Gary Matthews, nothing is more treacherous than airboat captains - those wizened, weathered men who pilot tons of metal backed by a ten-foot propeller over a few feet of water and miles of sawgrass. Read our blog article about things to do in the Everglades.Out in the East Everglades along the Tamiami Trail, on the thin strip of asphalt that runs between Miccosukee Resort & Gaming and Naples, plenty of dangers await the unsuspecting visitor. Prices do not include gratuities. Tours depart daily.Įverglades Day Safari offer pick up locations on Sanibel, Fort Myers, Fort Myers Beach, and Naples. Save on your visit – print or present COUPON below! One of The Top Eco-Tours in The WorldĮvery Everglades Day Safari adventure includes an airboat ride where alligators are plentiful and the birding is excellent, a relaxing boat cruise into the Ten Thousand Islands, a delicious lunch with alligator appetizers, a wildlife drive within the Big Cypress Preserve and a nature walk full of gators, birds and much more! Read our blog article about Everglades Day Safari.Īll-inclusive Florida Everglades safari pricing is $165.00 adults and kids over 16, $145.00 for children ages 5-15. See alligators, birds and much more from airboats, conventional boats, and on foot. Explore all four ecosystems that make up the Everglades: the sawgrass prairie, mangrove estuary, cypress swamps and pine savannah. Join one of the world’s premier eco-tours and travel through the magnificent Florida Everglades.
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