Q&A – Palm Beaches Push to Remove Illegally Moored Boats
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
Email: brianmudd@iheartmedia.com
Social: @brianmuddradio
iHeartRadio: Use the Talkback feature – the microphone button on our station page in the iHeart app.
Today’s entry: My wife and I have owned our cruising sailboat for 13 years, and like so many other local residents, when we’re not out sailing, Lake Worth Lagoon has always been our vessel’s home and hailing port.
Word got out Friday — with little real notice, and without any effort to make the information widely known — that the City intends to start destroying our moorings this Tuesday. Palm Beach officials are pushing policies that would strip away long-standing anchoring rights and force people off the water. They claim moorings and liveaboards are an environmental threat, but that’s a smokescreen. The real push is coming from wealthy waterfront property owners and donors who don’t want to see pleasure boats in front of their houses.
Here’s what’s at stake:
- Middle-class families like ours forced out: These rules will push ordinary, middle-class boat owners into distress sales, making yacht ownership impossible for anyone but the very rich. Families who’ve enjoyed the water for decades will be shut out.
- History erased: Lake Worth Lagoon has been a safe anchorage for hundreds of vessels over many decades. Yes, there are derelict boats — but responsible owners in the area have been reporting them for years, and those pleas have fallen on deaf ears. To pretend the entire anchoring tradition is the problem insults local history.
- Statutes ignored: State laws already exist to address derelict and unsafe boats — Florida Statutes §327.4107 (Derelict Vessels), §327.4109 (Anchoring or mooring prohibited in certain areas), and §823.11 (Derelict vessels; public nuisance). Officials have the tools but refuse to use them. Instead of enforcing those laws and using registration and permit fees to remove bad actors, they’re punishing everyone.
- Nowhere to go: There is no realistic alternative being offered for large cruising vessels. Available slips are limited, and the cost is already exorbitant. Without access to the lagoon, many owners will face severe financial hardship, often forced into distress sales of their boats. If you’ve ever been to the Miami or Fort Lauderdale Boat Show and walked past the rows of cruising sailboats, you know exactly the type of vessels I’m talking about — boats too large and too costly to simply “move somewhere else.” (My wife) and I saved for 20 years to afford our boat, and for families like ours, sailing isn’t just a pastime — it’s our way of life. Some people choose golf or tennis; for us, it’s the water.
- Kids lose out: The Palm Beach Sailing Club and its youth sailing programs depend on access to the lagoon. These rules mean underprivileged kids will lose their summer programs and the chance to learn sailing — opportunities that can change lives.
- Economic damage: Every boat displaced means less money spent locally on marinas, mechanics, riggers, sailmakers, fuel docks, and chandleries. Driving out the boating community isn’t just a social loss — it’s a blow to Palm Beach County’s marine industry and the jobs it supports.
- False “environmental” claims: Anchoring is being painted as destructive while ignoring that properly maintained moorings are actually less damaging. This is a convenient excuse to clear the lagoon, not real conservation.
This isn’t just about boats — it’s about government overreach, catering to donors, and shutting down a way of life that has always been part of Palm Beach County.
I’m asking you to shine a light on this before it’s too late. People like me can’t buy full-page ads or bend the ear of county commissioners, but your microphone can give this issue the attention it needs.
Thank you for your time, and for standing up when local voices are being ignored. Not all of us can afford waterfront property with private dockage, and for families like ours, who worked and saved for 20 years to own our boat, losing Lake Worth Lagoon means losing far more than a place to anchor.
Bottom Line: I wanted to take the time to share your entire note out of respect for your situation and in fairness to your concerns. I hear you and do understand how this will have a profound impact on your situation. I’m also sympathetic to the lack of options you currently have in attempting to remedy the situation. I promise you that what I’m about to share isn’t meant as an afront, but rather consistency.
The reason the Town of Palm Beach is able to do this is because numerous vessels are illegally moored. As I’m inclined to say if the premise of anything is false, anything built on the false premise is bound to fail as well. Effectively, if a vessel is moored illegally, the other considerations are effectively moot. So, about this.
Today the Town of Palm Beach will begin to remove illegally moored vessels from the Lake Worth Lagoon. This was first announced by Palm Beach last Tuesday, on the 19th. As the city stated:
The Town of Palm Beach has announced a coordinated effort to clean up the Lake Worth Lagoon by identifying and removing illegal mooring buoys and other unpermitted bottom-anchored devices. The initiative supports safer navigation and directly addresses documented environmental harm to the Lagoon’s water bottoms and vital seagrass meadows. Recent county notices have warned that floating and bottom-attached structures can sink, pollute, and scar sensitive habitats, this program acts on that warning with focused fieldwork and enforcement.
Unpermitted mooring systems and other bottom gear can gouge water bottoms, uproot seagrasses, and degrade nearshore habitats critical to fish, manatees, and other wildlife. The Lake Worth Lagoon Management Plan highlights seagrass as a keystone habitat and calls for actions that protect and restore it which are goals that this cleanup directly advances.
The town pointed to three laws that vessels scheduled for removal are in violation of:
- Permits are required for markers and buoys. Florida law prohibits any person or government entity from placing a uniform waterway marker, including buoys, on state waters without a permit from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC). Florida Statute 327.40
- No tying to unlawful bottom objects. It is illegal to anchor, moor, tie, or otherwise affix a vessel or floating structure to any unpermitted, unauthorized, or unlawful object affixed to the bottom of Florida waters (with a narrow exception for a private mooring on privately owned submerged lands). Florida Statute 327.4109
- Illegal markers can be removed. State rule authorizes FWC officers, sheriff’s deputies, municipal police, and other law enforcement to remove or cause the removal of any marker found in violation of Florida’s uniform waterway marker rules. FAC 68D-23.111
As it applies to what’s getting underway, it’s a matter of local government enforcing laws that had been lightly enforced previously. As one who believes in intellectual honesty and consistency, I’ll offer up a couple of examples as food for thought. Would we feel as though it would be acceptable for people to store their boats or other vehicles, on state owned land, a la state parks? Of course not. Waterways are no different in that regard. The land/water isn’t the property of those with vessels; thus, a permit is needed to make use of it for storage purposes. If one hasn’t been legally obtained, that’s the crux of the issue that should be remedied by boat owners.
As it pertains to the laws having been lightly enforced previously, with many vessels that have moored in the same place for many years, that doesn’t inherently make it acceptable. This is commonly an argument that’s used by advocates of illegal aliens that have been in the country for many years. Just as an illegal alien evading the law for a long length of time in the country doesn’t make it legally acceptable, the same is true with any law that’s been lightly enforced previously. It would be hypocritical of me to argue to the contrary.
I am truly sorry as I believe you’re well-meaning and well intentioned. I wish you well as you deal with the adversity you’ve found yourself in this week.