I live in a waterfront home here in NWFL and found myself participating with some neighbors in ridding ourselves of a collection of six derelict, semi-derelict, and one sort of operating old wooden shrimp all of which collected at the end of a public dirt road in our neighborhood. The boats' ownership was impossible to trace except in the case of one which found the owner in jail on unrelated charges. There was little doubt about the illegal drug-related activity of the on and off residents. There was a rickety plank walk constructed out to the fist semi-sunken vessel after which it was hop along to get to the outboard vessels. The sheriff county finally told them they had to be moored fifty feet off the end of the road (not sure what law they used), tore down their walkway and the sheriff put up a chain link fence across the end of the road. For some months later there was small boat traffic to this junkyard from the nearest boat ramp, and after that died out and the boats all removed by chainsaw, the fence was removed, and now we see locals there with kids and mullet nets enjoying the waterfront.
There were a number of other derelict vessels around the county for many years, but tracking down legal owners and securing state money to clear them slowed removal way down. However, Hurricane Michael came here last October and ripped our county apart at the seams, and the cleanup has involved a large USCG contracted service to remove all sorts of sunken vessels from marinas and other places. There were two disposal sites set up on land where barges carrying wrecked vessels lifted out of the waters by barge-mounted cranes were deposited on land. From my wanderings, it appears that this opportunity was taken to rid us of ALL derelicts including those pre-existing the hurricane.
I wouldn't wish a category five hurricane like Michael on anybody, but it surely was one good way to clear away the waterborne debris of years. Hopefully, the marine patrol and local governments will stay ahead of the issue in the future.
