PALM BEACH, Fla. — Soon the scenery at the Lake Worth Lagoon will look different, after an plan from the town of Palm Beach to protect the area by removing illegal mooring buoys.
However, boat owners feel this move is unfair.
WATCH: Town announced plan last week to clean up Lake Worth Lagoon
"The waterways are supposed to be for everybody,” said Martin Minari, a Palm Beach County boat owner, who uses the Lake Worth Lagoon boat moorings to store his boat.
Last week, the town of Palm Beach announced its plans to clean up the Lake Worth Lagoon by finding and removing illegal mooring buoys and other bottom-anchored devices that are not permitted.
"The Palm Beach Sailing Club has, I don't know, two to three hundred members. Since its inception, maybe 50 to 60 years ago, they've kept their adult cruise and sailboats on moorings out there,” said Minari, who adds that the moorings in the lagoon were professionally installed when things were still being operated under the old federal navigation rules.
Now, he and a longtime friend, Matthew Woods, feel like they're being forced out.
"I've had several different boats and I've always taken care of them and they've always operated well and my kids grew up on the boats,” said Woods, who adds, “There's nowhere to go. We found one in Lantana, which we could do. It's a 13-mile trip, and I think that one is $2,000 a month."
Major John Scanlan of the Palm Beach Police Department sent a statement to WPTV:
Currently, boaters are only asked to relocate from illegal and unpermitted moorings that should not be there in the first place. They can remain if they drop an anchor rather than hook to illegal and unpermitted moorings.
Major Scanlan believes the moorings are a hazard to the ecosystem by gouging water bottoms, uprooting seagrass and degrading nearshore habitats critical to fish, manatees, and other wildlife.
However, Minari and Woods aren't convinced and said they'll attend September's town council meeting, because they believe anchors have a habit of getting fouled and then dragging boats that they say end up on other people's property.
"Let's put it this way: Nobody cares more about the water quality than a sailor,” said Woods.
