The Florida Senate

253.72  Marking of leased areas; restrictions on public use.--

(1)  The board shall require all lessees to stake off and mark the areas under lease by appropriate ranges, monuments, stakes, buoys, and fences, so placed as not to interfere unnecessarily with navigation and other traditional uses of the surface. All lessees shall cause the area under lease and the names of the lessees to be shown by signs appropriately placed pursuant to regulations of the board.

(2)  Except to the extent necessary to permit the effective development of the species of animal or plant life being cultivated by the lessee, the public shall be provided with means of reasonable ingress and egress to and from the leased area for traditional water activities such as boating, swimming, and fishing. All limitations upon the use by the public of the areas under lease that are authorized by the terms of the lease shall be clearly posted by the lessee pursuant to regulations by the board. Any person willfully violating posted restrictions shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

(3)  To assist in protecting shellfish aquaculture products produced on leases authorized pursuant to this chapter and chapter 370, harvesting shellfish is prohibited within a distance of 25 feet outside lawfully marked lease boundaries or within setback and access corridors within specifically designated high-density aquaculture lease areas and aquaculture use zones.

History.--s. 1, ch. 69-46; ss. 27, 35, ch. 69-106; s. 154, ch. 71-136; s. 1, ch. 98-203; s. 8, ch. 98-333.