Editor’s Log
Score one for the water tribe in Georgia—all the sailors, powerboaters, anglers and other aqua lovers—who deserve a big, collective high five from the rest of us for banding together to push for a rollback of some of the most draconian anchoring restrictions in the country. Over the course of the past year, they have talked. They have lobbied. They have remained calm and reasonable. And most recently, it appears that took a significant step forward, when the Georgia House of Representatives approved legislation, called HB 833, that will overwrite and reverse rules announced in January that make it nearly impossible to anchor in many areas along the Georgia coast, including some 140 miles of the Intracoastal Waterway.
I say that it looks to be a step forward, because after being overwhelmingly approved by the House, the legislation still needs to be passed by the Senate, and that action has been put on hold— as has nearly everything—by the unfolding coronavirus crisis. Still, the group Save Georgia’s Anchorages is hopeful it will eventually pass.
In the meantime, according to one account on Facebook, while the current anchoring restrictions remain in place, the good news is that it doesn’t appear they are being vigorously enforced. It comes at a time when the northbound migration of winter cruisers is about to start.
To be fair, Georgia is not the only coastal state to grapple with water-quality issues, abandoned derelict vessels, access to the sea or landowners’ rights. Battles with the boating community in neighboring Florida are well-documented; as far away as New England, there are harbors where anchoring has all but been eliminated, thanks to the proliferation of mooring fields.
But, in Georgia, critics say, officials decided to correct a problem that doesn’t exist, and did so in a way that severely affects how people can use their boats, even if the overwhelming majority of them plan to do so in a responsible way. Making matters more objectionable, the law reportedly was drafted with zero input from the boating community, and then as regulations were being drawn up by the state’s Department of Natural Resources and public hearings were held, concerns raised by a number of marine organizations were flat-out ignored.
The result: No anchoring anywhere in the state within 300 yards of a marina or 1,000 yards of a structure; the enactment of anchoring permits and fees; strict rules on waste discharge, including a requirement to keep logs of pump-out visits; and onerous fines for any violations.
As one critic wrote in a January report in the Waterway
Guide, a publication that has covered this ongoing saga from the outset, the anchoring bill was “never about concern over the cleanliness of Georgia’s waters. It was about getting rid of a couple of nuisance boats in the coastal Georgia area to make a couple of powerful people happy. It was their scenery that was getting polluted—not the water.”
When word of the anchoring law began to spread this past May, boating groups banded together. A pertinent question: If this happens now in Georgia, where next? Besides the Waterway Guide, the alliance included the National Marine Manufacturers Association, America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association, the Marine Trawlers Owners Association, the Seven Seas Cruising Association, Boatu.s., and a host of other groups and individuals.
When their concerns fell on deaf ears, and Georgia’s DNR released its restrictions in January, rather than give up, the boating community continued its efforts and even engaged lobbyists to help educate lawmakers. At stake, besides residents’ rights to use their boats and the rights of the many vessels that transit the ICW, was the value of the boating community to businesses all along Georgia’s coast. In the end, good sense prevailed—in the House at least. With luck, it will in the Senate too. Reports indicate the new rules—if and when adopted— will be easy to abide by.
And perhaps, there’s a lesson to be learned here. As other states try to enact fees, restrict water access and limit our ability to stop where we want for the night, let’s see if we can’t stick together and turn the tide back in our favor.