Bikini Beach
For the benefit of the few or the many?
There’s a small sandbar that has brought up a great question of personal freedom versus the good of the majority.
Sandbar parties are all the rage. The Islamorada Sandbar which lies in sight of US 1 is packed on weekends and crowded on most days. It has a Facebook Page with 48,000 followers. I belong to several fishing groups on Facebook that often have requests for charters to the sandbar. There are now several companies specializing in just that.
The parties seem to have popped up everywhere there is shallow sandy bottom and even some places where there is none. In my Kurt Hunter Series, I have gone into the damage caused by thousands of feet on seagrass. Check out what I’ve written about that before here.
This time I’m writing about a different and unique and negative impact one of the sandbars is having: road traffic. There is a small sandbar located on the two-lane stretch of highway between Florida City and Key Largo called Bikini Beach where usually six to twelve boats and jet skis anchor for an afternoon of sun and sand. Sounds great, and they have every right to do that, though I don’t know what the appeal of hanging out fifty feet from the highway is. I’ve heard that this is one of the only places with sandy bottom around Key Largo, but the attraction is lost on me.
Why they’re here isn’t what this is about either. It’s about the traffic caused by their presence. The highway is one of two ways in and out of the Keys. The other, Card Sound Road, is longer and has a toll, though we often take it on weekends to avoid the traffic on US 1.
Congestion, as traffic jambs are now called is common on the two-lane stretch as it is through Islamorada and a couple of other sticky points on the through the Keys. It is often common to see a two-mile backup in both directions because of the sandbar. The problem is severe enough that the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has just allocated funds to install a visual barrier along the stretch of highway.
Spending what will probably be at least six figures, on at first, privacy fencing and later trees and brush seems crazy to neutralize the consequences of a dozen boaters.
That’s what I want to talk about. Should the boaters be forced off the sandbar for the sake of hundreds of motorists, or should they remain and have their freedom to enjoy the sandbar result in a substantial cost to taxpayers.
My first reaction, because the problem affects me personally, was to get them out of there. Make it a no motor zone so they can’t enter. That’s wrong though. Though there are plenty of marine parks and restricted waters in the Keys, this isn’t one of them and there’s really no reason to make it one.
What about taking an alternate approach and relocating the sandbar. Why not artificially create a better place, a water park of sorts, where people can enjoy the sandbar lifestyle without affecting others. It seems counterintuitive to groom a section of natural wilderness, but these guys are here to stay and an effort needs to be made to accommodate them. It would seem to be a pretty simple operation. No roads, facilities, or parking are required. Just groom the bottom a bit and bring in some sand.
The Keys beaches, what there are of them, are built up by man. Both Sombrero Beach in Marathon and Smathers Beach in Key West are supplemented with massive quantities of sand to counteract erosion. Why not do this to a shallow area with boat access?
It’s an interesting example of the personal freedom of the few versus the good of the many. I’d be interested in your thoughts.
As Winston Churchill said: "It's a constitutional right, wrapped in a moral dilemma, inside a slippery slope." Well, he would have said that if he'd lived close to the Florida coast. I too, feel conflicted about the damage to our fragile sandbars and beaches. But, just as sure as I enjoy quietly flipping bait, or silently cruising on my paddle board, I also acknowledge that my fellow citizens have a right to get drunk, half naked, and sunburnt on a floating disco ball.
My only consolation is that, as all American fads do, this one too shall pass.
If cars are going to slow down anyway, put in a toll. Once they've collected enough money to psy for the screening, remove the toll.
While the boaters are completely within their rights, this could be an opportunity for NPS to enact user fees/permits on certain sandbars. The idea is against my principles but the older I get the fewer principles I have
Yes, I know it's an enforcement nightmare but a couple of cameras and any boat without a day use permit gets mailed a ticket. Not a solution but a something