Boating

The Florida House has unanimously approved a new boating safety bill. The measure aims to enhance safety on the water by strengthening penalties for boating accidents and reckless operation.

Both proposals are named after Lucy Fernandez, a 17-year-old killed in 2022 when a 29-foot boat she and 13 others were on hit a channel marker near Boca Chita Key.

A helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater found the boaters in the Gulf atop the boat's hull, and a crew with the Coast Guard in Fort Myers Beach rescued the trio.

The governor said he was announcing a “boater freedom initiative” that would change laws permitting inspections and searches under the justification of safety checks.

The coastal inlet was closed off in the 1980s, when Sarasota County agreed to pile up sand to protect two vulnerable beachfront homes. But hurricanes blew open the waterway this year.

Tomasko says seagrass in Little Sarasota Bay declined by about 40% with the pass closed, but didn't disappear. About 600 acres of seagrass remains, covering as much as one third of the area.

Several stations used by boaters, divers, researchers and meteorologists as a critical tool to understand sea surface conditions are becoming derelict and decommissioned, leaving those who rely on them, in the dark.

Miami Beach is tired of a community of live-aboard boaters anchored just offshore. It's adopted policies limiting their access, including making it illegal to tie up dinghies at a city boat launch.

Life jackets worn at all times would lessen possible tragedy, officials say. Alcohol or drug use played a role in 23% of fatalities last year, which is up 10% from 2022.

Boating safety is in the spotlight following last Saturday’s death of a teenage girl who was wake boarding with friends off Key Biscayne.

U.S. Coast Guard St. Petersburg is seeking information on a missing boat with four male occupants.

The report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation on the 2022 boating season shows fewer accidents at sea, but more deaths.