NAVARRE BEACH — Vandalism has been blamed for the sinking of a fishing boat in Santa Rosa Sound that has become a nuisance to some residents and raised safety concerns.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is in the process of declaring the boat a derelict vessel. The commission has sent the owner a registered letter to declare the boat a derelict. Once the owner accepts the letter, he will have five days to remove it from the sound.
“I’m very happy to hear they’ve declared it derelict and it needs to be moved,” said Santa Rosa County Commissioner Jim Melvin. “That’s a life safety issue there.
“Somebody is going to drown inside that boat if we’re not very, very careful,” Melvin said. “We keep reporting it. I keep getting complaints from my constituents.”
Stan Kirkland, spokesman for the FWC, said the boat is registered to a Jeremiah Shastid of Navarre. Attempts to contact Shastid were not successful.
Kids and teenagers have been seen climbing and jumping off the boat and swimming inside its hull. Melvin said the boat is an attractive nuisance and is worried someone could get hurt or killed on it.
“Anybody that gets on that boat is subject to being charged with trespass,” Kirkland said. “That is a private vessel. It’s just like somebody going in your home even though it’s sunk. Anybody, I don’t care how old they are, can be charged with trespass, so they need to stay off the man’s vessel.”
Kirkland said the sinking of the boat, as well as its sinking last year, was the result of vandalism. About a year ago, he said, somebody broke the boat’s bilge pump and drilled holes in its hull below the water line, causing it to sink. More recently, somebody removed the boat’s watertight hatch covers, causing it to sink again.
Prior to the boat sinking, Kirkland said it had been legally anchored in the sound near Juana’s Pagodas for the past two years.
Kirkland said most people in this situation would go ahead and remove the vessel from the water because of the potential problems it could cause. However, if Shastid is able to repair the boat and get it floating before the five-day period is over, he will be able to keep the boat anchored.
“There are some people in the area that apparently don’t want the boat anchored there and I think that’s playing into this,” Kirkland said. “But the man has every right to anchor his vessel and as long as he gets it up off the bottom, that’s what we’re interested in.
“It’s unfortunate what all he’s dealing with the vandalism,” he added.
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.