DUNEDIN — City commissioners voted unanimously Sept. 3 to bar the launching and landing of personal watercraft on the south side of the Dunedin Causeway, closing the last stretch of causeway beach where the machines could reach the water.
Pinellas County closed the north side, west of the drawbridge, to vessel launching years ago. With the city’s action, personal watercraft are effectively banned from the entire causeway.
Riders who launch elsewhere may still pass the causeway at posted speeds, city officials said, but may not land on the beach. A first offense draws a written warning. A second brings a fine of $93, or $138 if the citation is contested.
Parks and Recreation Director Tony Mulkey said the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office documented about 80 incidents involving personal watercraft along the causeway between January 2022 and April 2026, including launching in unauthorized zones, operating inside swim areas, running in no-motor zones, speeding, wake violations and unsafe operation near swimmers and paddlers.
Dunedin Fire Rescue logged more than 3,200 calls for service on the causeway between January 2021 and May 2026, Mulkey said, including boating incidents, water rescues, medical emergencies and trauma responses. Two people died in personal watercraft crashes during that period.
“Public safety concerns remain as to the compatibility of high-speed motorized launches within areas heavily utilized by swimmers, kayakers, paddleboarders and other passive recreational users,” he said.
City Manager Jennifer Bramley opened the discussion by calling the launch question “a controversial subject with a lot of input.” Sailing and environmental groups lined up behind a ban during public comment, while several riders asked commissioners to consider something short of a total prohibition. One speaker said pushing personal watercraft off the causeway would cost the city business.
Margo Currey, a captain with the Windlasses, told commissioners the women’s sailing group “has been sailing around the causeway for 58 years.” A day earlier, she said, six personal watercraft ran past 15 women swimming between the island and the mainland.
“Not one of the operators of the personal watercraft slowed down,” she said.
The Windlasses and Dunedin Youth Sailing moved programming to the causeway after the 2024 hurricanes, Currey said. “We did however have incidents where after launching the sailboats, personal watercraft ‘buzzed’ the boats and circled the marks used for our races. The Windlasses are looking for safety and respect for others sharing the waters.”
Claudia Nable, president and founder of Sailability Greater Tampa Bay, said operators had repeatedly swamped her kayak while she paddled along the causeway, throwing wakes at close range near children learning to swim, sail and kayak.
“It appeared quite intentional as they drove past us smiling,” she said. “These types of interactions raise safety concerns for those less experienced swimmers, kayakers and smaller vessel operators in congested waters.”
A report submitted by Sierra Club member Tim Hughes and the Suncoast Sierra Club conservation committee urged a full ban, saying it would protect seagrass beds and manatees and safeguard the shoreline renourishment work the city and county are doing on the causeway’s south shore.
“Since the October 2024 hurricanes, when motorized vessel launches were prohibited, the policy has aided in restoring critical seagrass habitats and marine biodiversity in the area,” the report said.
The shallow flats along the southern shoreline are ecologically tied to Honeymoon Island and Caladesi Island, according to the report, and reopening them to motorized craft “would reverse habitat improvements and adversely impact the sensitive aquatic ecosystem there.”
The margins are also prime foraging habitat for the Florida manatee, the report said, citing research that manatees spend 78% of their time in the top 3.6 feet of the water column. In water shallower than 3 feet, similar to the causeway shoreline, the odds a manatee sits within a vessel’s strike draft rise to 96%, the report said.
The club also urged the city to plant mangroves, sea grapes and other native trees to build what it called a model living shoreline.
Vice Mayor Rob Walker, a captain on the Caladesi Island ferry, said the trouble comes from “a minority that exhibits worse behavior than others” and that the underlying problem is “really about safety and lack of infrastructure.”
The launch area is “very constricted,” he said. “The channel is narrow and there is no room for error.” Adding operators who do not know the water, or who have been drinking, he said, is a recipe for disaster.
County officials backed the change. “The county would support the city taking a position to restrict access to watercraft on the south side of the causeway,” Thomas Washburn, the county’s transportation division director, wrote to the city.
The county closed the north side to launching years ago, he wrote, “due to the damage caused and the costs associated with constant repairs to sensitive environmental areas.”
“We would expect these areas to remain closed for vessel launching regardless of the decision made for the south side,” he wrote.