Boat owners are feeling the strain of the blue-green algae crisis on the Treasure Coast.
Mary Radabaugh, a manager at Central Marine Stuart says the last thing her clients want to do is take their boats out.
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“They could put their boat in the water and go in, but we have advisories all over everywhere,” Radabaugh says.
She says her clients tell her they don’t care to get out on the water if they can’t swim, and they’re also worried about breathing in toxins.
Radabaugh says Fourth of July weekend is usually one of the busiest of the year, but this year, over the entire holiday weekend, only one boat went out from the marina.
“And they said next time they will listen and not put their boat in,” Radabaugh says.
She’s concerned boat owners may eventually want to move out if conditions don’t change.
“If it goes long enough and there's no answers, then we'll come to the point where they are like, ‘Why will we keep this? It's a monthly expense,’” she says.
Tony Ross, general manager at Waylen Bay Marine in Stuart says some boat owners are already giving up.
“Nobody wants to go out and smell the stuff, they don't want to be in the stuff, I mean it's just so toxic,” Ross says. “We're having people sell their boats because of the water quality, and were having people not buy boats because of the water quality, so it's really taking a toll on the marine industry here."
Ross and Radabaugh say the algae is a problem even when boats are docked. They say while sitting in water where there’s algae, a grayish stain is created on the bottom of the boat.