County mulling waterfront purchases to keep commercial fishing alive

County mulling waterfront purchases

to keep commercial fishing alive

BY TERRY SCHMIDA

Check out a picture of Key West Bight from its late 1950s shrimping heyday, and you’ll see a harbor teeming with dozens of boats captained by owners earning thousands of dollars weekly from the “pink gold” rush.

Today, just a handful of commercial boats remain in the Southernmost City. The rest of the area has been completely overrun by multi-million dollar yachts, and all-you-can-drink sunset party pilgrimage platforms.

The changeover helped Key West retain its prosperity during the difficult years after the Navy closed up its submarine base in the early ’70s. But pushing the commercial fleet out to Stock Island changed the character of Key West for good.

Now, with the same development pressures beginning to – once again – chomp up shoreline in the Safe Harbor area of Key West’s next-door neighbor island, the county is strongly considering getting involved in two real estate ventures that would help protect the commercial fishing industry.

“I honestly think that the only way to really rest assured that our commercial fishing fleet will be able to stay in business is to do something like what we’re contemplating with this purchase,” Commissioner David Rice said. “Anytime you see property in private ownership, one sale can change the use of that property forever, and the parcels surrounding it as well. This is something we’re thinking about very earnestly.”

Neither of the deals in question are close to being voted on, as terms must be agreed upon, and contracts drawn up. But the upshot is that the county is in discussions with businessman Roger Bernstein, who controls, through a trust arrangement, a parcel known locally as La Curva. Bernstein’s plans include sizable waterfront hotel and restaurant. But that scenario would also allow for a decent chunk of land and waterfront access to accommodate fishing, lobstering, and stone-crabbing, which reels in about $100 million to the local economy per year, while employing nearly 4,000 workers.

“[Bernstein is pushing a 10-year development agreement with the county that would still allow significant space for commercial fishing,” Rice said.

Asked if the deal would maintain the fishing industry at La Curva in perpetuity, Rice responded “I think so . . . Already a bunch of nearby fishermen have formed a group to purchase small docks and plots for their own needs, which I thought was a pretty smart way to deal with the issue. That way, some of them will still be there years from now. The ones who can’t make it may need to leave, but they’ll have a county-run space to go to.”

Then there’s the issue of Fisherman’s Seafood, aka Gulf Seafood, an 8-acre parcel of working waterfront in Safe Harbor that the county has been leaning towards buying outright, in order to keep the local seafood rolling in.

At the county commission’s March meeting a dozen or so fishermen and their family members showed up to voice their support for the purchase, which they called necessary to preserve not just an economy, but a way of life.

“The time is right, the price is right,” speaker Mimi Stafford said. “The community is in favor.”

However, Fishbusterz fish house owner Peter Bacle urged the commissioners to think twice about moving forward with the idea, claiming that there aren’t enough boats fishing out of Safe Harbor to maintain the existing processing facilities on Stock Island.

“There’s simply not enough boats or production to put in another fish house,” Bacle said.

Having instructed staff to look into both deals, Rice and other commissioners are hoping to see progress on the matter soon.

“We’re still in the negotiation stage,” he said. “No contracts have been drawn up. Right now this is all just a discussion.”