Do Mooring Fields Address The Derelict Vessel Issue or Are They Just Another Monroe County Tourist Attraction?

[An Open Letter To] Commissioner George Neugent,

You were quoted in the Key west Citizen as saying “We are treating the symptoms instead of treating the real problem with derelict vessels. The way to treat the problem is through managed mooring fields.”

I need you to explain to me why you think a managed mooring field will solve the derelict vessel problem. Every thing I have seen and heard shows a managed mooring field provides a marina for transient cruisers while the liveaboards and stored vessels (most likely to become derelict) continue to stay on an anchor.

I found this presentation put out by Florida Sea Grant (a university based program) for a Titusville mooring field and on slide 21 it states a mooring field  “does not prevent derelict vessel problem”.

I called this marina and they told me there WERE 15-20 anchored live aboard boats before the mooring field went in. Only 5 liveaboards stayed once the  75 buoy mooring field went in. The others moved further north and still are on an anchor. The users of the rest of the buoys are transient cruisers.

I also came across this presentation which clearly shows, in Monroe County managed mooring fields are used by transient cruisers while the liveaboards and stored vessels continue to anchor outside the mooring field. See slides 13 and 18. Often there are more anchored than on buoys even when buoys are available.

So how would a managed mooring field help with the derelict vessel situation? Or provide for a healthier environment when it seems mooring fields attract more anchored boats?

Is it your intent to build a commercial marina for the cruising community and locate it in Buttonwood Sound? If you are trying to deal with derelict vessels, that is a whole different issue and solution. You are confusing me and the public.

Dottie Moses