Derelict boats staying put | pnj.com | Pensacola News Journal

Derelict boats staying put | pnj.com | Pensacola News Journal: "The state agency in charge of removing dangerous or abandoned boats is out of money.

That means 21 derelict boats in the Pensacola area are stuck, foundering or capsized until a local government or someone else foots the bill.

"We have no funding for 2009 and 2010," said Phil Horning, who oversees derelict vessels for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

He estimated there are as many as 1,500 derelict or abandoned boats in the state.

There are 13 such vessels in Escambia County and eight in Santa Rosa, Conservation Commission Lt. Gary Tolbert said.

One of the Santa Rosa boats is a sailboat without sails, rigging and windows that has been in Santa Rosa Sound off Shoreline Park South in Gulf Breeze for more than a year."