MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Liveaboard boaters in Miami Beach breathed a sigh of relief Monday night after a state Senate bill that would have limited anchoring within 200 yards of any part of Miami Beach, lying between the MacArthur Causeway to the Julia Tuttle Causeway was amended.
“This amendment actually limits the scope of the current bill to about 3% of what it originally was,” State Sen. Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, explained as she addressed the Senate Rules Committee about her bill. “This bill aims to strike a balance between the recreational boating community and the preservation of Biscayne Bay’s environment and residential areas by implementing targeted restrictions on state anchoring.”
The amended bill, SB 192, which sailed through committee unanimously, will now only impact certain sections of Biscayne Bay that lie between the strip of islands that line the Venetian Causeway.
But as the state battle simmers down, the clash between the liveaboard boating community and the city of Miami Beach continues to stir at the local level.
“Today I went to work and within 30 minutes of leaving my dinghy, it was towed,” liveaboard resident and retired Carmel, Indiana firefighter Barbie Winn explained on Tuesday.
Winn is one of about 40 people who call their boats home in Sunset Harbour. She is a part of the community on the water that is now locked in a bitter battle with Miami Beach over their right to stay.
Winn says she had to pay $600 to get her dinghy back after it was towed away from a seawall by Sea Tow on orders of Miami Beach Code Compliance. It was one of at least four dinghies that were towed on Tuesday from the Collins Canal near the Holocaust Memorial and from another location by Alton Road.
“It’s incredibly hurting to me because I’m on a retirement budget with a small part-time job,” she said.
Since December, the city has been tightening the screws on the boat dwellers, removing and limiting access to the land. The dock off Maurice Gibb Park is their only legal option, but they can only tie up there for 20 minutes.
“Since we can’t control what happens on the water, we can certainly control how you get to land,” Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez told Local 10 News.
The freshman commissioner has made cracking down on the liveaboards his top priority, even traveling to Tallahassee a few weeks ago in support of SB 192.
Suarez has accused the liveaboard boaters of compromising the health of Biscayne Bay, by polluting the water with their waste and damaging the seagrass by recklessly mooring on top of it.
“It is literally a ticking time bomb,” he explained. “I’ve been in the water myself, I dove down and I see the anchor scraping the seagrass.”
By the request of the city, the Miami Beach police marine patrol unit and FWC conducted a marine sanitation device check in late January. Of the 39 liveaboards tested, two boats were cited for improperly containing and disposing of their waste.
Miami Beach police were also requested to check the anchors of the liveaboards to check their impacts to the bottom of the bay a few weeks ago.
“We dove a total of 66 vessels and we had five violations,” Sgt. Duane Rezende told Local 10 News.
The divers were looking for irregular anchors like cinder blocks and other miscellaneous items that could harm the marine environment. Five citations were issued for improper mooring, but obvious damage to the seagrass was not visible.
“In this area here, there’s very little to no seagrass,” Rezende told Local 10 Environmental Advocate Louis Aguirre.
Historical context is important to understand the lack of seagrass.
That’s because according to records, when that portion of Biscayne Bay was dredged to create the Venetian Islands in the early 1900s, the bottom of the bay was ravaged.
“When they dredged, they removed the seagrass, they removed the sediment,” seagrass expert Jim Fourqurean explained. “They moved everything. They were trying to get rock and sand in order to build these islands.”
Fourqurean is a professor of biology and the Associate Director of the FIU Institute of Environment. Data shows that there’s been little to no new seagrass in most of this area since the early 1980′s, but to verify that data, the Don’t Trash Our Treasure team had Fourqurean dive into the water to observe it first-hand.
“I’m not finding any seagrass here where the boats are hoard[ed], the water is too deep on the bottom,” Fourqurean revealed. “There’s been mud accumulated since they dredged it – but all there is is red algae growing down there.”
The city of Miami Beach conducted a survey that corroborated Fourqurean’s findings. The data, which was released in December, found very few patches of seagrass in this area with over 30% density.
That’s why, from the Macarthur Causeway to just north of the Venetian Causeway and east of Belle Isle, the city wants to create a mooring field.
The proposed field would be similar to what’s seen off Watson Island and North Bay Village. It would allow the local government to control the number of boats that can stay in the area to truly minimize the impact to Biscayne Bay.
“And that’s going to be able to have regulation,” Suarez said. “When you have a mooring field you’re not going to be able to anchor, you have to tie up your boat to the mooring.”
Right now the plans are to accommodate 147 vessels of different sizes. Not all of the vessels will be liveaboards. Still, the boat dwellers who spoke with Local 10 cautiously embrace the compromise if it means they get to stay.
“We accept the mooring balls, we want them to come in,” said liveaboard resident and boat captain Micah Plummer. “We’re totally happy to pay, this is worth it… we want to pay for the privilege to be here.”
The city of Miami Beach has set March of 2026 as a target date for the mooring field. Residents can provide their input on this issue through March 21 on the city website. There, you can also find more details on the city’s proposal.
But until then, Suarez has expressed that he will keep the pressure up to discourage other potential boat dwellers.
“The moment you make it comfortable here for this behavior and you incentivize this, more will come,” Saurez doubled down.
But with that compromise still in the distant future, the liveaboard boaters told Local 10 that because of bad actions from a few people, all are being unfairly punished.
“I feel like they’re trying to close it down,” boat captain Micah Plummer said. “And that’s a shame because I love Miami [Beach], I’d love to stay.”
“We need to start thinking forward thinking with regards to what we’re going to do with mooring fields, and how this should really be a local issue and not a state,” State Sen. Garcia explained in her closing statement Monday night.
But before the mooring field can happen, the city of Miami Beach must first create anchoring limitation areas where boats would be prohibited from mooring. City leaders are working with Miami-Dade County to designate those areas since they would fall under county jurisdiction.
In the meantime, Miami Beach Marine Patrol has also stepped up its efforts to enforce derelict vessels. In total, seven vessels have been removed and destroyed this year. Another four at-risk vessels are being investigated, but have not yet met the criteria to be cited.
It is important to note that just because a vessel is ugly or unsightly, it does not mean that it is derelict. For more on the classification of a derelict vessel, visit the FWC website.
Local 10 contacted the nation’s largest boating advocacy organization BoatU.S. for comment on this issue and received the following statement:
“BoatUS commends the City of Miami Beach for looking at the issue of abandoned boats and considering solutions that not only protect our waterways, but keep the options of active responsible cruising boaters in mind. We know there are places throughout Florida, not just in Miami Beach or Dade County, that need smart policy regarding how to manage anchored vessels. BoatUS thinks the right approach is the creation of mooring fields and anchorage limitation areas. This provides opportunities for responsible boaters to anchor in specified areas, but not long-term, while still addressing the issue of abandoned or derelict vessels that can clutter our waterways. "
David Kennedy, Manager of Government Affairs for the Boat Owners Association of the United States