Derelict boats a costly hazard; owners should be fined

“Thousands watched” this year’s Riverwalk Regatta. The north side of the river was treated more fairly by Bradenton and the sponsors this year, but that still needs improvement, and traffic and commerce at venues not at the site were strongly curtailed for the event. More seriously, emergency routes to the hospital for participants and citizens on the north side were severely hampered.

As photographers snapped photos of the “races” yet another ugly trash heap, derelict boat lay sunk in the decrepit-boat polluted waters of the Manatee River. They conveniently left it out of their pictures as though unwilling to look at the ugly truth that our local politicians ignore, too.

These derelict boats cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages each year to sea walls, piers, bridges, docks, other boats and even homes. They are frequently “owned” by slum lords who buy them cheaply and “rent” them to people as flop houses and floating storage, or worse, illegal drug stores. One owner is alleged to re-float them with piped in mini-Styrofoam balls, some in plastic bags like those found in the gut of the young Manatee calf Emoji who died recently (bradenton.com/news/local/article130088334.html), and litter shores nearby.

Our politicians should be ashamed and punished at the next election. We need laws that demand registration and inspection of these long-term squatters and polluters. They should be required to have at least $100,000 in liability insurance to cover their removal and the tens of thousands in damages they do each year. Owners should be fined heavily for not registering them and abandoning them.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Derelict boats a costly hazard; owners should be fined."