Matlacha man warns of dangerous, unmarked boat traffic near his home

MATLACHA, Fla. (WINK) — A Matlacha resident is raising concerns about dangerous boat traffic in the shallow canal behind his house.

Jim Lukitsch sent WINK News a picture from his backyard on a weekend day showing boats bunched up in a traffic jam. He said the congestion happens because boaters don't know where they're going in the unmarked waterway.

"There's more and more boats, and they're bigger and bigger boats, and with the growth in the Northwest Cape and everybody coming out of the spreader has to go right by my house if you want to get out to the Gulf," Lukitsch said. "They just don't know where they're going. They're following the sea wall. They don't know where the bars are. Nothing's marked. There's no channel marked."

The boats are coming from Cape Coral and heading toward open water. Lukitsch said the lack of markers creates a dangerous situation for boaters who don't know how much room they have to navigate.

"It is dangerous because the boaters don't know where they have room to go. It's not marked," Lukitsch said. "If they could just mark it so the boaters can know how wide the road is."

WINK News contacted Lee County, where the communications director said they sent Lukitsch's request to the county's Natural Resources Department and to Cape Coral. Lukitsch said the solution is simple.

"It's really just placing markers along the sandbars where they're located," Lukitsch said.

Sea Tow, the company that rescues stranded boaters, calls this area a hot spot and confirmed this is an issue. The shallow water and sandbars in the area create hazards for boaters unfamiliar with the waterway.

WINK News asked the county for an update but was told there wasn't one. WINK News also reached out to Cape Coral, which controls water nearby but not where Lukitsch lives, to ask if they've heard of any problems.

WINK News will update this story if the City of Cape Coral responds.

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