{"id":155816,"date":"2026-02-14T21:30:56","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155816\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T21:30:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T21:30:56","slug":"community-rally-against-proposed-cruise-ship-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/155816\/","title":{"rendered":"Community rally against proposed cruise ship port"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; Multiple organizations gathered at Seabreeze Park today for a Save the Bay rally to voice opposition to a proposed cruise ship port near Rattlesnake Key.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The rally aimed to educate the community about environmental impacts and open conversations about the proposed development. Eight speakers addressed concerns about the 328-acre project targeted by developers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tom Glancy, an environmental specialist with The Village Improvement Association, described potential environmental damage from the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe increased siltation and turbidity that would constantly happen from running these ships in and out and the immense dredging that would have to be done just to create a four and a half mile long channel,\u201d Glancy said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/02\/13\/community-rally-opposing-cruise-ship-port-proposal-set-saturday\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/02\/13\/community-rally-opposing-cruise-ship-port-proposal-set-saturday\/\">PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Community rally opposing cruise ship port proposal set for Saturday<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Glancy said the project threatens a fragile ecosystem that has been protected for decades.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cWhen you have the potential to lose as much sea grass and marsh and oyster habitats as we have out here that would be just swallowed up by this project, it never comes back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Slip Knott LLC bought the land last December. The company says the port would create an economic boom for Manatee County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Mark Jenkins, a spokesman for AAA, said the port would benefit cruise passengers through increased competition and options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cIt creates more competition among cruise lines which can lead to more competitive pricing but it also creates more variety, more ship options, departure dates, diverse itineraries,\u201d Jenkins said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Manatee County officials emphasize the project is still in an early stage of review.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; Multiple organizations gathered at Seabreeze Park today for a Save the Bay rally&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[74886,24812,7088,70078,74887,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-155816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-cruise-ship-port","9":"tag-environmental-protection","10":"tag-manatee-county","11":"tag-rattlesnake-key","12":"tag-save-the-bay-rally","13":"tag-st-pete","14":"tag-st-pete-headlines","15":"tag-st-pete-news","16":"tag-st-petersburg","17":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","18":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}