T&T: Anchoring is a criminal offense

[Rich Gano]

Living in a rather rural county, except for the strip facing the Gulf
occupied by Panama City and Panama City Beach, we tend to not have a lot of
the congestion on our waters farther a field from those two cities and thus
a lack of enforcement action.  However, a couple of my neighbors across our
bayou (10 miles inland from the Gulf) have been dealing with a problem
related to derelict-or-nearly-so "shrimpers" anchored along the shoreline.
With a public dirt road ending at the water between my neighbors'
properties, the "shrimpers" took advantage of this easy access to the water
and ended up with a sordid collection of about seven boats there, half of
them resting on the bottom at any one time.  Reckless driving down the road,
loud parties, and unconcerned use of air-cooled generators became the norm.
A warning to the nearest neighbor not to call the cops again consisted of
his dead pet placed in his driveway - we are NOT dealing with the finest
members of society here.  one of the owners has been in jail for a while,
and the ownership of his and others' vessels was clouded so that any time a
ticket or other enforcement action was contemplated, fingers were pointed in
all directions to the "owner."

A few of us went to both the sheriff and the chairman of the Bay County
Commission.  Some cooperation from the Florida Game Commission water cop
(the Florida water cops infamous for the Marco Island enforcement fiascos)
who lives around the corner of the bayou and his boss also was secured.  The
problem from the county government point of view was that they had no
authority beyond the high water mark, and the problem from the state cops'
point of view was that there are no laws against placing boats there.  Catch
22.  The county eventually placed a gate across the end of the dirt road
stretching from one property owner's fence line to the other.  The
"shrimpers" then began using motorized skiffs to get to their vessels from a
nearby public boat landing.

Eventually, some tickets were written, and a couple of boats were raised and
a couple moved to another anchorage.  The county commission wrote us a
letter telling us that all they could do was to insist that the remaining
boats were to be moved at least 50 feet into the bayou from land and that
all makeshift piers be removed.  Once compliance was achieved, the gate was
opened so that now they can have a wooden skiff drawn up on the shore so
they can paddle the 50 feet out to their craft.

Two years into this mess we just dropped down to two vessels over there,
neither of which has been underway in years and will doubtless someday end
up on the bottom.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42 #295)
Southport, FL (near Panama City)