{"id":300561,"date":"2026-06-08T22:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/300561\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T22:25:09","slug":"new-anchoring-restrictions-target-abandoned-boats-in-st-lucie-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/300561\/","title":{"rendered":"New anchoring restrictions target abandoned boats in St. Lucie County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 St. Lucie County has new restrictions for boaters anchoring in their waterways. <\/p>\n<p>On June 1, the county implemented two anchor limitation areas in the Indian River Lagoon and Fort Pierce Harbor, near the South Causeway Bridge.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH OUR COVERAGE: <\/p>\n<p>St. Lucie County cracks down on long-term anchoring<\/p>\n<p>This means a person may not anchor a vessel for more than 45 consecutive days in any six-month period in any anchoring limitation area established, without leaving all anchoring limitation areas for at least 24 hours.<\/p>\n<p>Erick Gill with St. Lucie County spoke to WPTV about how they\u2019ve been seeing more abandoned vessels in these waterways.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Gill said FWC collected around <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-st-lucie-county\/st-lucie-county-removes-18-derelict-boats-from-waterways-in-year-long-cleanup-effort\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">two dozen derelict vessels<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>These new restrictions, Gill said, will help make the waterways more navigable.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We need to make sure that highway for vessels is clear and free for other vessels to come and go,\u201d said Gill.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/treasure-coast\/region-st-lucie-county\/st-lucie-county-removes-18-derelict-boats-from-waterways-in-year-long-cleanup-effort\" class=\"ListItem \" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"ListItem-category\">Region St Lucie County<\/p>\n<p>    St. Lucie County removes 18 derelict boats from waterways in cleanup effort<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last December, WPTV spoke to James Beams with St. Lucie County Port, Inlet and Beaches. He said when abandoned vessels sit for too long, they could impact water quality.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of environmental concern with the diesel and oil tanks and then holding tanks,\u201d said Beams.<\/p>\n<p>Gill said the restrictions will help avoid those pollutants from getting into the water.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s over 4,000 species of animals and plants and birds that live in the lagoon,\u201d said Gill. \u201cWe want to make sure we&#8217;re protecting it.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p>For a site map of the anchor limitation area, <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stlucieco.gov\/departments-and-services\/county-administration\/port-of-fort-pierce\/anchoring-limitation-areas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">click here<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1776291667_422_.jpeg\" alt=\"REP_CARD_TYLER-HATFIELD_PORT-ST-LUCIE-_FS.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WPTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. LUCIE COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 St. Lucie County has new restrictions for boaters anchoring in their waterways. On&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[126299,126301,126300,23841,171,173,172],"class_list":["post-300561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-anchor-limitation-areas","tag-derelict-vessels","tag-fort-pierce-harbor","tag-indian-river-lagoon","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300561","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=300561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}