CORTEZ – While campaigning in Cortez, Kelly Kirschner, the Democratic candidate for Florida’s 16th Congressional District, said if he’s elected on Nov. 3, he will file legislation that would attempt to add Rattlesnake Key and the neighboring Knott-Cowen tract of land to the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuge. He said doing so would open the way to buy the land using existing federal conservation funds.
Kirschner spoke at the Miller Dock in Cortez on Oct. 30 to a crowd of local officials, supporters and Cortez residents. Kirschner’s campaign tag line is “Let’s Fix This.” The campaign event hosted by AP Bell Co. owner Karen Bell included fried local mullet and hush puppies.
Rattlesnake Key is located in Tampa Bay just south of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. The undeveloped property is owned by the Rattlesnake Key Preservation Company LLC, which is a subsidiary of cruise ship terminal operator SSA Marine. Slip Knott LLC and SSA Marine announced in January that they were exploring building a multi-berth cruise port on the Knott-Cowen tract of land.
“We almost lost this space in January,” Kirschner said in reference to the proposed cruise ship terminal. Kirschner said the cruise port would have required dredging a channel 4½ miles long and 60 feet deep through Tampa Bay.
Earlier this year, more than 19,000 people signed a petition opposing the cruise port terminal. During the 2026 legislative session, state lawmakers adopted Senate Bill 302. The enacted legislation bans dredging in the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve area that includes the Rattlesnake Key and Knott-Cowen properties.
Kirschner credited Republican state Sen. Jim Boyd, who wrote the dredging amendment, and Gov. Ron DeSantis, who signed the bill into law. But Kirschner said the new state law leaves some gaps.
He noted the state did not buy the Rattlesnake Key property and state law still allows “minimum dredging” for marinas and docks – without defining how much minimum dredging is allowed.
“That’s a loophole that you can drive a cruise ship through still today,” Kirschner said.
Kirschner said the state has had the area on its conservation buying list since 1995. He said the Legislature set aside money to buy Rattlesnake Key in 2022 and 2024, and a federal grant of approximately $500,000 was previously awarded, with Manatee County pledging matching money.
That plan stalled over price, Kirschner said. The state appraisal came in at $7.5 million, but the private buyer paid $18 million for the Rattlesnake Key property.
Kirschner said government buyers can only pay the land’s appraised value.
He crafted his remarks around Benjamin Franklin’s 1754 “Join, or Die” cartoon, which depicts a snake cut into several pieces. A sign displaying the cartoon stood during the event.
“Every level of government holds only one piece of the answer,” Kirschner said.
The proposal
Kirschner described Rattlesnake Key as about 700 acres of mangroves and tidal flats that are reachable only by boat and serve as a nursery for snook, redfish, tarpon, shrimp and stone crab. He noted that nearby Bird Island is among the state’s top rookeries.
Kirschner said federal refuge funds can be used only to buy land inside a refuge’s approved boundary. His proposed legislation would extend the Tampa Bay National Wildlife Refuge to include Rattlesnake Key and the Knott-Cowen tract. He said that would guarantee, by law, public fishing and boating access, but he noted the federal government can only buy land from willing sellers.
Kirschner said most of the federal funding would come from offshore oil and gas receipts and from federal duck stamp sales, as well as from fuel and fishing-equipment taxes that already fund fish habitat and boat ramp access.
Kirschner’s protection plan is based on the idea that he gets elected to fill the congressional seat being vacated by Vern Buchanan, and that he could then secure the support of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives for his plan.
He contrasted the cost of his plan with the state’s spending on the “Alligator Alcatraz” detention facility in the Florida Everglades. Kirschner said the state spent $1 billion on the detention facility that is now being torn down. He said protecting Rattlesnake Key and the Knott-Cowen tract would cost “a small fraction” of that amount.
Kirschner called for a new appraisal of the Rattlesnake Key property and for the state Legislature to close the marina loophole. He urged Manatee County voters to approve the ballot referendum that seeks to continue the county’s land conservation program, which he said has protected 2,500 acres of land since 2020.
Supporters speak
Merrie Lynn Parker, a retired Manatee County School District administrator and board member of the Manatee Fish and Game Association, said hunters and anglers are among the most consistent conservationists. She said her organization is among the groups behind the Manatee County ballot referendum. She said overdevelopment and seawalls have eroded the natural filtering and storm protection that mangroves provide.
University of South Florida marine scientist Steven Murawski was unable to attend Friday’s event, but Kirschner said Murawski’s team has spent years testing fish across the Tampa Bay region for contaminants that include PFAS “forever” chemicals.
Suncoast Waterkeeper board member Rusty Chinnis said water quality underpins the area’s fishing and real estate industries.
“If you do not protect the water, none of this works,” Chinnis said.
Reel Tight Fishing Charters owner Matt Feuyo said clean water and healthy mangroves drive the tourism that supports the area’s small businesses.
Cheryl Kelly, a former director of budget and management at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said she reviewed Kirschner’s plan with former colleagues who work in land acquisition.
“This is an achievable goal,” she said.
Kelly asked the crowd whether Kirschner’s Republican opponent, Sydney Gruters, had developed a comparable plan to protect Rattlesnake Key. According to those in attendance, Gruters had not held a campaign event in Cortez.
The elected officials in attendance included Holmes Beach Mayor Judy Titsworth, Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse, Longboat Key Town Commissioner BJ Bishop and Sarasota City Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch. Kirschner also recognized former county commissioner and county commission candidate Reggie Bellamy and Florida House candidate Lisa Klein.
