Boaters and Parks Service Do Battle Over Biscayne Restrictions
Proposal to stop boaters from dropping anchors gets criticism
A proposal by the Parks Service to shut off some sand bars and anchoring to boaters on Biscayne Bay to protect the environment is angering boaters.
The Miami boating community is in an uproar. Faxes are flying, e-mails are flooding mailboxes, and the issue is all over Facebook. What’s got boaters upset is a draft proposal issued by the staffers at Biscayne National Park.
The way Pete DiFilippi and Larry Roesch see it, the Park Service is setting out to restrict anchoring pleasure boats on the west side of Elliot Key. The Park Service proposed a series of mooring fields on the west side of the key. Only one boat per buoy and boats could not tie up to each other.
“They are destroying the life style that we have had for generations,” says Peter DiFilippi, the Commodore of the Blackpoint Marina. “Some of he areas they are looking at controlling are just where we go right now and there are no grass beds,” DiFilippi complains.
It appeared to boaters like Larry Roesch that only a limited number of boaters could tie up at Elliot Key. Boating would be all but banned as there would be no where to drop anchor and it appeared from reading the draft proposal pulling up to sand bars would also be restricted. Roesch, who is the Commodore at the Homestead Marina, says his experience with the Park Service is “they will do anything they want.” But Roesch also says too many "people" are aware of the controversy and at the end of the day he expects compromise.
The crux of the issue for the Park Service is to protect the seabed from so many anchors in environmentally sensitive areas and law enforcement. With boats crowded together providing police protection or evacuating an injured boater has become problematic
Public comment on the proposal was set to end September 3. But that date may be moot. The Park Service has hit the reset button.
Park Superintendent Mark Lewis frankly admits that the draft proposal was not at all clear. “We made it appear that all of the water west of Elliot Key would be closed to anchoring other than the buoy fields. That was not our intention," he said. "The vast majority of the water west of the islands would be open to anchoring."
A victory for the boaters? They do agree with much of the proposal, especially the protection of sensitive reefs and sea grass beds. But they assure all who will listen they will be watching the next draft out of the Park Service very carefully.
