- Who: Boaters, residents, sheriff’s deputies, and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission across all four counties.
- What: Abandoned and at-risk vessels are accumulating in local waterways faster than they can be legally removed.
- Where: From Vero Beach and the Indian River Lagoon down through Fort Pierce, Jensen Beach, and Manatee Pocket.
A cluster of wrecked and sunken boats near North Hutchinson Island has boaters in Fort Pierce worried someone is going to get hurt. Roughly 15 vessels sit in various states of disrepair at Wildcat Cove, some sunk on top of each other, most without lights after dark.
That cove is not an outlier. It is one visible example of a problem showing up in nearly every navigable waterway on the Treasure Coast, and the rules meant to address it move far slower than the boats accumulate.
Rising Costs Are Pushing People Onto the Water
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office has linked the growth directly to affordability. Special operations deputy Lt. Michael Dougherty told WPTV the county has seen a significant increase in people living aboard idle or deteriorating vessels, with some boats breaking loose and striking docks.
Dougherty described the result as floating communities forming on South Florida waters, a pattern deputies say has expanded as housing costs climbed. Some of these vessels are genuinely abandoned. Others are occupied by people with nowhere else to go.
That distinction matters for enforcement, because the legal process treats a boat as property regardless of whether anyone is living on it.
A Home on the Water Faces Far Fewer Rules Than a Home on Land
A waterfront house on the Treasure Coast is subject to building codes, septic and sewer requirements, setback rules, flood elevation standards, permitting, and inspections. A deteriorating vessel anchored a few hundred feet offshore faces almost none of that.
Before recent local ordinances, a person could legally anchor an unseaworthy boat in public waters for months or years while it fell apart. There was no inspection requirement and no waste discharge verification for most anchored vessels.
Florida law also limits how much of a municipality’s waters can be placed under anchoring restrictions, which means counties can only regulate a fraction of the areas where boats actually gather.
What Each County Has Done So Far
Indian River County approved an ordinance in August 2025 creating six Anchoring Limitation Areas totaling about 177 acres inside Vero Beach city waters, plus three more totaling roughly 210 acres in the Town of Indian River Shores. Boats may not anchor in those zones for more than 45 consecutive days in any six months, and three violations in a year trigger a derelict designation.
Senior lagoon environmental specialist Melissa Meisenburg said the county removed 13 derelict vessels from the lagoon in one recent year and two more the following year, at a combined cost of $121,100. Building out the new restricted zones with required buoys and signage was estimated at roughly $329,000.
St. Lucie County and the City of Fort Pierce followed with two Anchoring Limitation Areas inside the Fort Pierce Inlet, effective June 1, 2026. The same 45-day limit applies, with boaters required to move at least one nautical mile away for 24 hours before returning. The county removed 18 abandoned vessels during a year-long cleanup effort.
Martin County took a different route, establishing mooring fields at Manatee Pocket and the Jensen Beach Causeway to concentrate boats in managed areas where vessels can be checked for compliance. Commissioners later expanded the harbormaster’s authority to act on boats that do not belong there.
Martin County has also repurposed one vessel entirely. Working with FWC, officials sank the Borocho, a 227-foot derelict freighter, about nine miles off the St. Lucie Inlet to create an artificial reef.
Why Removal Takes Months or Years
Florida law requires due process before a boat can be pulled from the water. An officer must investigate the vessel, locate its registration and hull identification number, make a reasonable effort to notify the owner, affix a derelict notice, and then request a letter of authorization that goes to FWC headquarters in Tallahassee for final approval.
Indian River County notes that the investigation stage alone can take months and sometimes years. In practice, that means a boat residents report today may still be in the water next hurricane season.
Cost is the other bottleneck. Martin County deputies estimated removal runs from about $6,000 into far higher figures depending on the vessel. Grant programs through FWC and the Florida Inland Navigation District cover much of the expense, but whatever grants do not reach falls to county budgets.
The Environmental Cost
Abandoned vessels are not just eyesores. Fuel, engine oil, battery acid, and waste holding tanks can leak into the Indian River Lagoon, an estuary that supports thousands of species of plants and animals.
Sunken hulls also grind into seagrass beds and oyster reefs, and wind and tides push wrecks deeper into sensitive habitat over time. That is why removal specialists push for early extraction, before a boat settles.
Local businesses feel it too. Stuart tackle shop owner Giles Murphy told WPTV that visiting anglers notice the wrecks and ask about them, and that keeping the water looking good matters to the businesses that depend on it.
What Residents Can Do
The removal process starts with a report. Residents who spot an abandoned or deteriorating vessel can contact FWC directly, or in Indian River County, submit a report through the county’s Lagoon Division.
Boaters traveling near known problem spots, including the waters off Hutchinson Island, should use extra caution after dark, when unlit hulls and stray anchor lines are hardest to see.
Sources: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Martin County Sheriff’s Office, Indian River County Lagoon Division, St. Lucie County, WPTV, Vero Beach 32963, WQCS
