So far, no one at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has returned my phone calls, so Im left trying to imagine what might have compelled the commission to release a public survey on anchoring restrictions during the days bracketing Thanksgiving week, with very little (if any) advance notice, as far as I can tell.
The timing and poor notification is curious considering that anchoring restrictions have been an extremely contentious issue in Florida for at least two decades, ever since towns and cities began passing local anchoring ordinances, many in clear conflict with state and federal law. By 2007, several municipalities had established a mishmash of inconsistent anchoring ordinances, some with time limits of less than 48 hours. These rules, regarded as onerous by boating organizations like the Seven Seas Cruising Association and Boat-US, were repeatedly challenged, and in 2009, the Florida Legislature passed legislation that prevented local governments from enacting anchoring ordinances that conflicted with state law.
In 2011, the state launched a taxpayer-funded pilot program designed to promote the use of public, paid mooring fields instead of anchoring in six Florida municipalities-St. Petersburg, Key West, St. Augustine, Sarasota, Marathon, and Stuart. (See my Inside Practical Sailor blog post Floridas Anchoring Debate Heats Up, Sept. 17, 2014. The program was set to end in 2014, but was extended to 2017 after a failed attempt in the Florida Legislature to give local municipalities more leeway to enact local ordinances. This attempted return to the pre-2009 minefield came in the form of amendments that Dade and Broward representatives slipped in to pending Fish and Wildlife legislation at the last minute. The legislation was narrowly voted down in both the House and Senate.
BoatUS, which like most boating advocacy groups has been frustrated by the lack of communication from state officials, expects similar legislation to reappear in the spring when the Florida Legislature returns from its break. Based on the tone and presentation of the FWC survey (see the Nov. 25, 2014 Inside Practical Sailor post Florida Anchoring Survey: Here Today Gone-), it seems clear to me that the online survey is associated with an impending, renewed effort to shuffle cruising boats into paid mooring fields and marinas.
As with the survey and past public hearings, I don’t expect much warning when any new anchoring legislation comes up in Tallahassee. A few people have suggested that the survey and the poorly advertised hearings are simply a reflection of government ineptitude, but I don’t buy it. In either case, well have to post an anchor watch for the next year or so, keeping an eye out for a loose barge of bad news threatening to drag down on us all.
