CORTEZ – The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) is continuing to tenaciously pursue the enforcement of a 2019 judgment against Raymond “Junior” Guthrie to remove his net camp off the coast of Cortez in Sarasota Bay.
According to the judgment, the state of Florida owns the submerged land under the net camp.
In a March 28 filing in the 12th Judicial Circuit Court, FDEP Assistant General Counsel Cameron Polomski asked the court to find Guthrie in civil contempt of the court order and impose sanctions that could include incarceration.
Guthrie had a deadline of March 5 to either remove the structure or show cause why the final judgment ordering its removal should not be enforced. According to court records, he has not done so.
Polomski asked the court in his motion to “impose appropriate sanctions including, but not limited to the incarceration in the county jail for no more than six months or until defendant purges the contempt by completing the removal of the structure or any other remedy this court deems just and appropriate.”
The attorney also wrote that a site inspection was conducted by FDEP on March 15 and “At the time of the inspection the structure was still present, no effort to remove the structure was apparent.”
A court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 1.
Long before monofilament nets made cotton fishing nets obsolete, historical photos show dozens of wooden net camps dotting the waters off Cortez. Cortez commercial fishermen used net camps – structures built on pilings in the water – to mend, clean, store and dry cotton fishing nets.
Guthrie’s net camp, built in 2017, is one of two such structures off Cortez.
The civil suit against Guthrie began on Feb. 6, 2018 when the FDEP claimed that Guthrie had constructed an unauthorized enclosed docking structure on sovereign submerged lands in Sarasota Bay, and asked for its removal.
Guthrie maintained that his family previously had a net camp in that spot and the structure was protected under the 1921 Butler Act, which awards title of submerged lands to adjacent waterfront property owners who made permanent improvements on the submerged lands.
On May 4, 2023, 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Edward Nicholas signed an order dismissing the case due to failure to prosecute, but on Nov. 2 it was reopened at the request of FDEP, which claimed it had not been given proper notice.
The second net camp in Cortez, known as the Curt Johns net camp, is owned by John Guthrie. It is scheduled for refurbishment by the non-profit Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage (FISH) and is part of Organized Fishermen of Florida’s April 20 coastal clean-up initiative.
