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 Debate continues on how to best share Biscayne park
By ARNOLD MARKOWITZ
Waterfront News Fishing Columnist
At first glance, the beginnings of a plan for boat moorings in Biscayne National Park might look more than a little micro — a matter of concern for divers and sailors, sure, but not much for fishing-doers to care about.
Oh, no. There’s plenty here for us to care about and to sound off about when Biscayne begins a series of three public hearings early in July. Sure, there will be more down the line but passing these up may be a decision to rue.
As a fisherman, I cherish the chance to get my two bits’ worth on the record right at the start. I want my ideas to stick in the minds of Biscayne superintendent Mark Lewis and the park staff who are asking for our views.
By the time the planning process ends and decisions are made (no, the time frame isn’t predictable), I want them thinking the way you and I think, or at least thinking that our views make too much sense to put aside.
Sailors, divers and spear fishermen are going to be there too. It will be interesting to see what each group is willing to concede to the others, hopefully with the goal of avoiding conflict. They all want the crafters of whatever plan emerges to think as they think.
Whatever is done should solve problems rather than create them. It should be something that all park users can live with, even though it falls short of everyone’s idea of perfection. Everyone has a chance now to influence how this thing turns out. Those who don’t try shouldn’t boo if the end displeases them.
So, what do fishing people think? This one thinks mooring areas should be small and scattered, barely in sight of one another. I’m concerned that moorings of the future might be so large that they’ll encroach on areas where I want to fish, or slow me down on the way, or force inconvenient end runs that may cause me to miss the tidal stage I’m after at a certain cove or point.
If you’ve been through Biscayne on a weekend, especially a holiday weekend, you’ve noticed how dense the boat crowding can be at Sands Cut, to name just one popular location. In olden days, when rarely more than a few boats at a time were stopped there, even on weekends, the little inlet was a don’t-miss-it spot for fishing.
Even then, I wished it was too shallow for any boat with a deeper draft than mine.
I’m friendly to people I meet on the water, but deep down I prefer to have whatever water there is all to myself. If we meet and we’re both going thisaway, I’m likely to tell you the fishing’s great over thataway.
Are all fishing-doers that selfish and hermit-like? Deep down maybe, but most of us must have awakened long ago to the fact that we must share Biscayne. It belongs to sailors and divers too, and it is after all the only U.S. national park at the very edge of a big metropolitan area.
Fishing can be great in crowded places, if all you care about is catching something. Did you see the cable broadcast of the pro tarpon tournament in Boca Grande pass? Boats were so close together that the fishermen could trade beers hand to hand and cuss at each other without raising their voices.
If you must have isolation and tranquility on weekends, Everglades is more your style of national park. If you’re lucky, you can find solitude in Biscayne on weekdays.
Questions, questions
I peppered Elsa Alvear, Biscayne’s chief of resource management, with questions about the plans, which are somewhere short of embryonic at the moment.
Seems like the National Park Service is saying let’s kick it around; you go first.
“We're really at the ‘ideas’ stage at this point,” Alvear said. “We'd like to hear from the public if they want mooring fields, if they want more channel markers... if the public wants more information and/or regulatory markers in the shallows to prevent groundings, if they want mooring buoys and dive cards for the historic shipwrecks, et cetera.”
Another issue on the agenda involves channel markers. Should there be more?
Of course. Markers should make it easy to move from the Intracoastal Waterway to popular sites like Boca Chita without going aground on the way. It’s probably the best way to prevent environmental wounds like the horrid scarring of Featherbed Bank.
As for moorings, the park has them now over seven reefs and three historic shipwrecks, with as few as one to as many as five buoys, subject to storm losses. All are on the ocean side of the island chain. Use of the buoys is restricted to one boat at a time with a four-hour limit. Maximum boat length is 45 feet.
Those buoys are scattered over a range of about 9 nautical miles from Soldier Key and Fowey Rock on the north to Ball Buoy reef at the park’s southeast end. Density is greatest in the southern third.
How much more density is acceptable to the sailors and divers who moor? How many moorings in any given square mile will it take to remind Yogi Berra of the restaurant that used to be his favorite? (“Nobody goes there any more. Too crowded.”)
In a comparatively compact national park like Biscayne, do we really want so many moorings in one place that we’re forced to call it a mooring field with the loss of elbow room and tranquility that implies? No, but we may be unable to avoid it.
“One proposal we've heard is to establish a mooring field in the Sands Cut area, where many boaters gather on weekends, to prevent overcrowding and allow the sea grasses to recover,” Alvear said. “We want to hear from the public if that is something they desire.”
The Sands Cut discussion is an old one. In effect, it’s an unofficial anchorage now and has been for decades.
From a fishing point of view, a small mooring – say five boats, tops – at Sands Cut would be nice. With fewer anchors digging into shallow water, in time the sea grasses would recover and nurture hordes of tiny marine creatures.
All right, but where would you send the other boaters who enjoy social gatherings at Sands? Would they respond favorably to a four-hour time limit at a small number of far-apart moorings, or react against it?
“There are other areas like that too in the park — Biscayne Channel, for example,” Alvear said. “Should criteria be set regarding density of boats? How far apart should mooring buoys be from each other? If there are mooring buoys in an area, should that area be a no-anchor zone, and if so, how large?”
I wonder how many boaters spend how much time circling the mooring sites, waiting for someone to leave, the way car drivers cruise a crowded parking garage. What an ugly, offensive notion. Will it become common in Biscayne unless we support laying out more and larger mooring fields? And if that’s one solution, is it one we want in a national park?
I asked Alvear if there’s any data on mooring field circlers — you know, something that proves there aren’t enough moorings, that can tell us if we must have more, and if so how many.
“It is very hard to determine if people are futilely looking for a place to moor, as people rarely report back to the headquarters regarding such experiences,” Alvear said. “We are hoping people relate this kind of information at these meetings.”
Feedback: Want to disagree? Float a better idea? Write to witzfish@att.net
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Up close:
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Should there be more mooring areas in Biscayne National Park? How many? Where? Something is likely to happen eventually, with the goal of improving the park’s boating conditions for all visitors. Learn more and get your own ideas on the record at one of these two-hour public hearings. All meetings are scheduled 6 to 8 p.m.
• Tuesday, July 7 at the Homestead campus of Miami-Dade College, 500 College Terrace, Aviation Building F, rooms F222-223. 305-237-5219.
• Wednesday, July 8 at Crowne Plaza Miami International Airport, 950 NW Lejeune Road, Miami. 305-929-0101.
• Thursday, July 9 at Holiday Inn Key Largo Resort, 99701 Overseas Highway. 305-453-7150.
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