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Litter, safety violations, sewage dumps and murder. Florida Keys cops launch marina cleanup operation

The city of Marathon maintains a mooring field that can accommodate up to 226 boats within a harbor popular with Florida Keys mariners because it offers protection against winds and rough sea conditions.

But, hundreds of other people who live on their boats also anchor within Boot Key Harbor, and many don’t adhere to maritime navigational laws, such as lighting their vessels at night. And worse, some pump raw sewage from their boats right into the water.

The harbor is also far-too regularly the scene of some of the Keys more violent crimes, including homicides.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office put “liveaboard” residents in the harbor on notice this week that they will see an increased law enforcement presence on the water that includes deputies, as well as marine officers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and members of the U.S. Coast Guard.

They will be looking for marine safety violations, sewage discharges, derelict vessels and illegal activity, including littering and narcotics sales, according to a sheriff’s office press release.

Those cited for violations who don’t resolve the issues face fines, and even arrest, said Sheriff Rick Ramsay.

“I know many liveaboards in this community are good people who are following the rules and the law,” he said in a statement. “Nonetheless, the residents of Monroe County and the sheriff’s office will not tolerate overt lawlessness on or off the water.”

The operation is expected to last through November, Ramsay said.

Boot Key Harbor typically keeps law enforcement busy, including homicide investigators.

On July 26, Joseph Patrick Dugat, 45, was found shot to death floating in a dinghy at the harbor. Deputies arrested Christopher W. Davis, 59, on a murder charge in connection with Dugat’s death.

Earlier this month, deputies responded to a bizarre incident in the harbor in which three men were found intoxicated in the water, each covered in bloody wounds. All three men told police different versions about what happened to them and no arrests have been made to date related to the incident.

In October 2018, a man was found stabbed to death floating in the mangroves surrounding the harbor. Deputies concluded, however, that his death was justified because he was trying to kill a woman by hacking her with a machete.

During the melee, in which the woman suffered deep cuts to her head, arms, hands and other parts of her body, she was able to grab a knife and mortally wound her assailant.

A popular refuge, Boot Key Harbor was hard hit during Hurricane Irma in September 20017. Salvage crews from the Coast Guard, FWC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spend the months following the Category 4 storm removing smashed vessels from there, as well as many other places throughout the Keys.

Contractors work Oct. 11, 2017, to remove a vessel displaced by Hurricane Irma at Boot Key Harbor City Marina in Marathon.
Contractors work Oct. 11, 2017, to remove a vessel displaced by Hurricane Irma at Boot Key Harbor City Marina in Marathon.

FWC Officer Robert Dube said he expects the new enforcement operation will find mostly boating safety violations, and also health safety violations including illegal wastewater discharges. He said most of the people living in Boot Key Harbor, and those temporarily staying there, comply with regulations, but there are plenty who don’t.

“It runs the gamut in there,” Dube said.