Keys boat captains fear loss of income
Many say they won’t be able to stay afloat if the tourism traffic sinks
ISLAMORADA, FLA. John Gargan took one look at the damage left by Hurricane Irma around Whale Harbor Marina and came to a simple conclusion.
“We’re out of business till Christmas,” said Gargan, 67, who captains a 22- foot charter fishing boat called Couple- ABucks from the marina on this island in the Florida Keys.
The island chain took a devastating hit from Irma, which made landfall on Cudjoe Key as a Category 4 with 130mph winds. But residents throughout the Keys worry that the long- term economic impact will be even more painful than the short- term cleanup.
All those sunken and battered boats splashed across TV screens and newspaper front pages aren’t just high- end toys. They are the main source of income for owners, employees and crew members of charter fishing boats, dive shops, jet ski rentals, sunset tours and, of course, booze cruises.
More than half — about 54% — of the 77,000 people who live inMonroe County have jobs that depend on tourism, a $ 2.7 billion a year industry in the Keys,
according to the county. And with the water serving as such a big lure for those tourists, losing so many boats will put a painful dent in that figure.
“That’s their livelihood,” said LeAnn Bruzewski, 52, a marina operator who was preparing to cook meals for her captains on Thursday. “These are all people who followed their dreams down here, and now ...”
Captains who evacuated spent more time this week trying to learn the fate of their boats than the status of their homes. They tried to call friends who stayed behind and scoured the Internet to catch a glimpse of their vessels, which they left anchored in bays, tied up in marinas or tucked away in mangroves.
Some used a website from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that’s providing detailed satellite images taken post- Irma. Others got lucky elsewhere online.
“I saw mine on a Facebook Live video,” Gargan said. “Someone was driving around my key, and he pulled right into my driveway.”
It’s far too early to know exactly how many boats went down during Irma, but Steven Dobkins believes the final number could reach 10,000.
Dobkins, a Navy veteran who runs Keys Marine Towing and Salvage, fielded a nonstop series of calls Thursday from people asking him to raise their boats from the depths. While responding to a marina on Key Largo to pull out one fishing boat, his team had to spend an hour pulling out another one that was blocking the boat ramp. Dobkins said captains will face another wave of pain in the months to come as tourists struggle to find places to stay.
“All of the hotels are going to be filled,” by emergency crews and construction workers, he said. “And they’re not going to be spending anymoney. Except on beer.”
Some captains had already been stocking away money to get through a usual lull in business.
Rick Rodriguez, whose 39- foot Sea Horse survived Irma unscathed on Lower Matecumbe Key, said they usually see fewer visitors in September and October as kids return to school and fewer people take vacations. Rodriguez has spent most of his career helping tourists go deep- sea fishing offshore to land big fish such as marlin and mahi- mahi, and he already was prepared to get through these lean months.
But that strategy doesn’t help younger captains who aren’t as established and don’t have that kind of financial security.
Jason Fernandez sold all his DJ equipment two years ago to fulfill his dream of becoming a boat captain. He bought a 16foot skiff named The Black Sheep that roams the shallows of the Keys hunting for tarpon and bonefish. Irma destroyed all that.
Fernandez was forced to cancel his upcoming reservations, and with no other bookings in sight, he was behind the wheel of a skid- loader Thursday clearing debris from a washed- out marina. He’s planning to do cleanup and maintenance work for a couple of months until the tourists return.
“It sucks, it’s hard, but that’s nature,” Fernandez said.
The lack of work will also hit all the mates, store clerks and other workers who support the boating industry and usually live paycheck to paycheck.