Some FWC, police stops of boats, boarding to be halted by new Florida law. What to know
SB 1388, dubbed the Boater Freedom Act, prohibits any law enforcement officer, including Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, from stopping or boarding a vessel solely to conduct a safety or marine sanitation equipment inspection. The law makes safety or sanitation equipment violations secondary offenses and requires probable cause for any stops.
'This Boater Freedom Act is going to make sure that Florida remains the boater capital of the world,' DeSantis said May 19 at a press conference at a marina in Panama City. 'This is really significant legislation today. I know there's a lot of people throughout Florida that are going to be happy that this legislation finally got across the finish line.'
The bill requires the creation of a "Florida Freedom Boater" safety registration decal, potentially good for multiple years, to be issued during registration or renewal to show that the vessel has met the safety requirements.
SB 1388 makes the following changes to Florida law:
Law enforcement officials may no longer stop, board and search boats, even with consent, solely to inspect the craft's safety or marine sanitation equipment. Probable cause to believe a violation has happened or will happen is required
Violations of safety or marine sanitation equipment requirements bumped down to secondary offense
The FWC and the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles are ordered to create a 'Florida Freedom Boater' safety inspection decal to be issued at registration or renewal. The FWC may decode on the expiration date but it must be between one and five years.
Local governments and entities may not pass laws or regulations restricting the use or sale of a watercraft based on the energy source it uses, such as a ban on gas or diesel-powered boats to encourage environmentally-friendly electric motors
The FWC's ability to establish springs protection zones where the speed and operation of vessels can be restricted and some methods of anchoring or beaching vessels can be prohibited to protect the environment has been weakened. Now the agency may only act to prevent "significant" harm, rather than just harm, and only if "the operation, anchoring, mooring, beaching, or grounding of vessels is determined to be the predominant cause of negative impacts"
The FWC may not license any vessel owned in whole or in part by any alien power.
Previously, Florida law prohibited fishing licenses for "alien powers" who subscribed to the doctrine of international communism or who had signed a treaty or nonaggression pact with a communist power, but the new law changes that to block licenses for all alien powers. "Alien power" is left undefined. It is unclear how this would affect, for example, foreign-owned yachts.
The law goes into effect on July 1, 2025.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida Boater Freedom Act: mew law to block random stops
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