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Tag: Waterline Marina

Concerns raised about ferry landing efforts

Written by Joe Hendricks on . Posted in Featured.

HOLMES BEACH – Holmes Beach resident Daria Grinenko shared her concerns about the behind-the scenes-efforts to bring a Gulf Islands Ferry stop to the Waterline Marina basin. 

On Jan. 13, Grinenko was one of three city residents to express opposition to the ferry stop potentially being located in the Waterline Marina basin. 

When giving public comment again during the Jan. 27 city commission meeting, Grinenko addressed communications that occurred between City Commissioner Chair Carol Whitmore and Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Elliott Falcione.

“After the last commission meeting and the subsequent work session, I became concerned that we were not being heard about our opinions on a Waterline ferry stop. I therefore requested, under the Freedom of Information Act, texts and emails between Carol Whitmore and Elliott Falcione,” Grinenko said.

“Beginning last October, there are several texts and emails referencing this ferry stop, including such phrases as ‘the need to educate commissioners’ and that ‘the city is delaying this.’ There’s been no site plan proposal, so I don’t know why all this conversation is going on,” Grinenko said.

“Last week, I witnessed a gathering of Carol Whitmore with Elliott Falcione and three other men at the proposed dock area and the Waterline trolley stop. I have pictures on my phone. In addition, as Carol was driving away, I was sitting at the trolley stop and I heard you (Whitmore) yell to Elliott, ‘We have to make sure we have Dan on our side.’ Elliott responded, ‘Don’t worry, I’ve got Dan covered,’” Grinenko told the commission.

Holmes Beach City Commissioner and Manatee County Tourist Development Council Dan Diggins has publicly expressed his support for his support for a ferry stop somewhere in Holmes Beach since 2024. He was part of the efforts to bring a ferry boat to the marina in 2024 to help determine if a slip near the old Wells Fargo bank building would be a suitable ferry landing location. It was determined that day that there was not enough navigable space for that slip to serve as a ferry landing.

In closing, Grinenko said, “The question I have for you all, that I want you to consider, is how can we be convinced that Carol Whitmore will be able to perform her duties in quasi-judicial (site plan) hearing when it’s clear she’s the one person orchestrating this new use in the boat basin at the Waterline Marina.”

To date, the county has not presented to the city with a proposed site plan regarding the county’s potential purchase of a boat slip or slips in the marina basin for use as a ferry landing.

In response to Grinenko’s comments, Whitmore said, “I’ve been talking since October of last year to all the commissioners. I’m reporting about the ferry and saying that I was meeting with the county, so I have been keeping the board updated since last October – when I asked what the status was and they said they were letting the county deal with it to try to find a spot. When I found a spot (in the Waterline basin), I brought it up before the board, so I’ve been very transparent about that.”

Commissioner Terry Schaefer then said, “I think, by innuendo, there’s some belief that there is a consensus on this commission and I want to make clear there has never been a formal discussion, nor is it appropriate for us as a commission, to have a discussion until the county acts. And the act that they must pursue would be a site plan. So, nothing formally in discussion has occurred, or will occur, until there is a formal application. I think it’s unfortunate, by accident or by implication, that there is this belief in the community that there’s already a consensus to move forward. I, for one, have many questions about this issue. I can only speak for myself. I’m listening, I have questions and nothing formal will happen until such time as the county acts.”

Whitmore acknowledged that she met with Falcione and other county staff members as Grinenko stated.

“I have nothing to hide. If I did, I sure wouldn’t be out there on Marina Drive,” Whitmore said. “They looked over the areas so they can develop a plan to come before the city commission. That’s what they were there for. They know it’s all in their lap now.”

When talking to The Sun later in the week, Grinenko said, “I feel like Carol Whitmore’s not being a neutral party and she’s made up her mind because she’s trying to orchestrate this. That’s not how a commissioner should act. I feel she’s not fulfilling her role as a city commissioner. She’s acting more like a county commissioner and I don’t understand her actions.”

Mats of algae clog marina, affect business

Mats of algae clog marina, affect business

Written by Cindy Lane on . Posted in Algae, Featured, Outdoors.

TAMPA BAY – When the thick, slimy algae known as lyngbya gets into a boat motor, the fishing trip, dolphin tour, or sunset cruise is over.

A local tour boat operator fears it may not only stifle business but suffocate seagrass and even marine life if something isn’t done about it.

Captain Ben Webb, of AMI Dolphin Tours, helped coordinate a cleanup today of the Waterline Marina in Holmes Beach at the marina’s expense. High-pressure water from a hose pushed mats of algae against a seawall, where it was vacuumed into a tanker truck for disposal.

It’s not easy to talk about the smelly mess.

Mats of algae clog marina, affect business
Lyngbya in an Anna Maria Island canal today. – Cindy Lane | Sun

“It’s kind of a catch-22,” Webb said. “If we tell everybody about it, then our businesses drop, but if we don’t tell everybody about it, all of our seagrasses, everything’s gonna die.”

Growing mats of lyngbya can cover large areas and be several feet deep, impeding navigation and recreation, smothering submerged plants and clogging water intakes, according to the University of Florida Institute for Food and Agricultural Science.

“What a pain. It gets into my motor and if I’m not careful, I could overheat and burn up my motor,” said Capt. Kim Ibasfalean, of Capt. Kim’s Charters in Bradenton Beach, where the algae clogged canals last week.

It’s also a health threat. Lyngbya can emit cyanotoxins that can cause people hay fever-like symptoms, skin rashes, respiratory and gastrointestinal distress, and, if consumed, liver and kidney damage, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Some worry that the widespread bloom of lyngbya, a type of blue-green algae that appears brown, could be related to the April release of 215 million gallons of polluted water into Tampa Bay at Port Manatee from one of the closed Piney Point phosphate plant’s retention ponds. The emergency release prevented even more wastewater from being spilled from a pond built on top of a gypsum stack that had begun to crumble. The water contained the nutrients phosphorus and nitrogen. Lyngbya feeds on those nutrients.

Nutrients going into the water from various sources “are definitely the reason we have it,” Webb said.

Since the discharge, fewer dolphins are using the waters near Port Manatee and are congregating more than two miles away from the discharge site, according to the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program at Mote Marine. The program has been monitoring the dolphin community near Port Manatee for impacts from the discharge.

“In the dolphin business, we take people out every day to see these dolphins,” Webb said. “If all this seagrass goes away, what happens then is these dolphins that have been here for years and years and tens of hundreds of years are gonna move on to find better places to feed. We’re so fortunate to have what we do here but this grass is going to die.”

Mats of algae clog marina, affect business
Ben Webb, of AMI Dolphin Tours, organized a cleanup today of mats of lyngbya algae at a Holmes Beach marina that was blocking tour and fishing boats. – Rusty Chinnis | Sun

Scientists taking water samples to monitor the effects of the Piney Point discharge said today that there is no known connection between the nutrients in the release and any algae blooms.

Red tide is the more pressing threat, particularly in late summer and early fall, according to oceanographer Dr. Robert Weisberg, with the University of South Florida College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg.

“It’s a little too early now to prognosticate about what’s going to happen then,” he said.

Meanwhile, water monitoring continues.

No cyanotoxins – the neurotoxins that are produced by blue-green algae – were detected in the water samples taken in Tampa Bay on May 18, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Results taken from samples on May 20 are pending.

Large-scale removal of lyngbya is difficult, partly because of the potential for damage to seagrass and mangroves in some areas, and partly due to the volume of the algae and its mobility due to winds and tides, according to Damon Moore, with the Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department. The department is tracking a lyngbya bloom at Robinson Preserve in west Bradenton.

“It is not feasible to remove the extraordinary biomass of lyngbya during these bloom events on a bay-wide scale,” he wrote to county commissioners earlier this month.

“It is highly probable that even if extensive resources were expended on physical removal of algae mats… that would not be enough to prevent negative consequences like putrid smell and fish kills because most of the material cannot realistically be removed from the water,” he wrote. “The scale at which removal would have to occur in such a large and open system is not likely feasible and is cost-prohibitive. Focus should be placed on blocking floating mats entering areas where that is feasible and cleaning it from heavily used areas (i.e. beaches) where mechanical removal is feasible without causing additional natural resource damages.”

Captain Webb issued a dire assessment.

“Everything in this water is dying,” Webb said, following his day of cleaning algae-choked canals. “And we just can’t have that here. It’s just time for the business owners to step up and say this has to stop.”

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