Inside the effort to remove “ghost ships” from Southwest Florida waterways

FORT MYERS, Fla. (WINK) — Abandoned, rotting, and leaking—they are the "ghost ships" haunting Southwest Florida’s waterways.

For years, WINK Investigates has tracked the derelict vessels clogging the Caloosahatchee, from homeowners living next to these "backyard dumping grounds" to the state's slow-moving battle to clear them.

But as new laws prepare to give local leaders more power to clean up our water, what does the actual heavy lifting look like? Chief WINK Investigates reporter Chorus Nylander went to the front lines with the crews tasked with hauling these hazards away.

A Graveyard on the River

Southwest Florida’s waterways are our greatest asset, but they’ve become a graveyard for boats that owners simply walk away from. While new legislation is finally giving local governments more teeth to handle code enforcement, the actual physical removal can be dangerous, messy, and non-stop.

WINK Investigates spent a day on the river with Sea-Tow’s Ft Myers’ team to see why these ships are more than just an eyesore. We set sail with Captain Bobby Scott, the General Manager of Sea Tow Ft Myers.

“I’ve been on the water my entire life. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else,” Captain Bobby Scott said.

While the brunt of his work is to rescue stranded boaters—joking that he’s "broken down so many times in [his] personal boat" they gave him a job just to be in a more reliable vessel—he now spends a lot of time each week hauling away derelict boats.

The Constant Hazard

“We’ll go check this one out that’s not lit at night,” Scott said, pointing toward a looming silhouette.

These vessels are a constant hazard for the environment and passing boaters. When we asked how long one particular boat had been sitting, Scott estimated three to six months. Alarmingly, the boat—which has no lighting for night navigation—hasn’t even been tagged by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) yet. Until now, the FWC has almost exclusively handled these removal orders.

“It’s not a very quick process, but it’s to protect the state and vessel owner,” Scott explained.

The backlog is still significant following the historic wrath of Hurricane Ian. “It was non-stop work seven days a week for six months straight,” Scott recalled. Even today, Sea Tow is still dealing with Ian wreckage.

The day-to-day surprises can be dangerous. Scott notes that sailboats are often the most dangerous. “If this rolls on its side, those cables will stop a propeller,” he warned. We almost struck a sunken sail while observing the sailboat.

When a vessel is finally tagged, like the sailboat he showed us, its days are numbered. "Once it is approved, it is removed and demolished," Scott said."They're not sold, they're destroyed."

Sea Tow is just one of many companies out there doing this work, for removals there is a bidding process to get the job done. Captain Scott can’t legally do anything about the hazardous vessels unless that process plays out.

Beyond the navigation risk, there is a mounting environmental toll. “There’s no way there’s not fuel or liquids coming out of the motor the way it is,” Scott observed, looking at a half-submerged engine.

WINK Investigates has heard the impact these slow removals can have. For homeowners like Jeff East, the "why" matters less than the "when."

“We’re approaching hurricane season. We can’t have all these derelict boats in the water,” East said.

East has multiple abandoned boats sitting just outside his back door from his Ft Myers’ home along the river. He feels the process to remove them is “broken.”

Just last weekend, a boat near his neighbor Mike Carlino’s home—featured in a WINK Investigates report last month—almost struck a dock during severe weather before the Lee County Sheriff's Office secured it.

Carlino and East are hopeful, with many doubts, that a new law just signed by Governor DeSantis will help speed things along. The law goes into effect July 1st, it allows local governments like Lee County to bypass the state waitlist and remove "public nuisance" boats themselves.

However, the "heavy lifting" remains caught in bureaucracy, all plans still need to be approved by FWC. So far, Lee County hasn’t held any public discussion on how to utilize these new powers.

Captain Scott said he hasn’t looked deeply enough into the law to form a strong opinion but said one thing is for sure, “Anything to make our waterways safer, we’re not against that.”

No ships were ready for towing during our day on the water, but Captain Scott said the work will always pick up, he has no doubt.