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CLEARWATER, FL — Fed up with unsightly abandoned boats polluting and posing a navigational hazard in the waters around Clearwater, the Clearwater Police Department began an effort to clear the city's waterways of abandoned boats Thursday morning.
According to Clearwater Police Chief Dan Slaughter, the department is working with Divecom Marine Services to remove at least four abandoned boats including a 32-foot sailboat that's been sitting at the east end of the south side of the Memorial Causeway bridge. The boat has been abandoned for nearly a year. Another has been declared derelict and two more are at risk.
The effort to remove the derelict boats was paved in August when the Clearwater City Council voted unanimously to amend its city code, allowing the city to speed up the process to haul away abandoned boats.
Slaughter said the old process could take months to remove a boat because state law first requires a vessel to be declared derelict or at risk by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. This involves county investigators tracking the boat's owner. If the owner doesn't request a hearing or refuses to remove the boat, a notice of removal is posted for 21 days.
Slaughter said the code amendment passed by the council significantly speeds up the process by allowing police officers to issue civil citations for derelict boats that will be heard by a city special magistrate, cutting through the state's red tape.
“With this process, we hope to be able to move much quickly, much more expediently and, hopefully, make some determinations earlier on,” he said. 'If the boat meets the criteria of being in dismantled condition or certain other conditions, we can remove it much quicker.”
The boats are being towed to a slip. Ideally, the boat owners will receive citation demanding that they pay the cost of moving and disposing of the boat. But since financial woes most likely led to the abandonment of the boats in the first place, Slaughter said recouping costs from the owners is difficult.
Furthermore, derelict boats confiscated by the city can't be sold. However, there are some state and nonprofit programs available that can help with the costs.
FWC grants are available to pay for derelict boat removals. Funding is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis as long as funding is available. The FWC will pay 100 percent of the removal costs for all eligible derelict vessels awarded removal funding.
The Florida Boating Improvement Program is a state financial assistance program that provides funding through competitive grants.
For boats that pose a pollution concern, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Clean Vessel Act Grant Office can fund up to 75 percent of eligible project costs relating to site preparation, equipment purchase, installation, operations, maintenance, sewage hauling and educational outreach.
But, most likely, the city will have to pay a salvage company to dismantle the boats and haul them away.
The Clearwater City Council said it would ultimately like to see state legislation in place that offers a long-term solution to getting rid of derelict boats.
State Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Jennifer Webb, D-Gulfport, filed bills in 2019 to help expedite the removal process, but both bills died in subcommittees.
According to the FWC, Florida has more than one million registered boats and, currently, Florida's waters are littered with more than 1,500 abandoned boats ranging from barges and trawlers to sailboats and outboard skiffs.
The last major effort to rid Florida's waters of abandoned boats was 12 years ago when both luxury and working boats became victims of the recession.
In 2008, the Florida Legislature appropriated $1.55 million for derelict boat removal and, in six months, the FWC removed 83 vessels (at an average cost of $450 per foot) including two 100-foot barges, a 90-foot steel casino boat and a 65-foot shrimp trawler sunk in 20 feet of water.
In 2010, the state decided to try a new tact and focus on preventing boats from becoming abandoned.
Under the At-Risk Vessel Program, law enforcement officers at state, local and county levels have access to an interactive database used to catalog boats that are showing tell-tale signs of neglect: barnacle-encrusted hull, listing or grounded condition, cabin open to the elements, missing gear, no anchor light at night, etc...
Law enforcement officers can then post a bright yellow flag on the boat to indicate it is at risk of becoming a derelict vessel under Florida law. Law enforcement also notes the vessel's condition, takes photos and videos, maps its location and records other information to monitor the vessel and, ultimately, force the owner to take action, according to Phil Horning, derelict vessel program administrator for the FWC.
'This is an effort to communicate with the owners, to inform them of problems that, if not corrected, will turn the boat into a derelict,' Horning said in a prior interview. 'It's an official notice, not a violation. If possible, the officer will contact the owner and say, 'Hey, what's going on with your boat?' and that may be all that's needed.'
He said it's not always the fault of the owner.
'We found that some boats had absentee owners who had been depending on someone locally to take care of their boats, but who weren't following through,' Horning said. 'Unless there's a violation, like an expired registration or no anchor light, the yellow tag merely says to the owner, 'if you don't take care of your boat, if the condition persists, we will be coming back' and that's when the orange sticker comes out.'
If the owner fails to address the problem, officers then affix an adhesive sticker to the boat, giving the owner five days to get the boat out of the water or face fines and possible criminal charges.
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' Under Florida law the last owner of record may be responsible for the boat. If the owner doesn't remove it, he may be charged with a felony, lose motor vehicle and vessel registration privileges, incur other legal and court costs, or be forced to reimburse the jurisdiction — city, county or state — that paid for the removal.
Horning said the FWC is willing to work with the boat owner rather than have the owner walk away from the boat or, worst, scuttle it.
Slaughter said Thursday's efforts are just the beginning.
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'We have other vessels on our radar for possible removal as well, but there is a process we have to follow,' he said. 'Our goal is to make the city's waterways safer to navigate and remove these boats from the water.'