The Mega Marina That Could Replace The Seaquarium

Miami-Dade County and its development partner have submitted plans to state regulators for a large-scale marina on Virginia Key that critics say could impact sensitive marine habitat in Biscayne Bay.

Editor’s Note: This story was first published on July 9 by WLRN Public Media. The Spotlight is re-publishing the story under a partnership agreement with WLRN.

Miami-Dade County has quietly submitted an application to state regulators for a new marina at the shuttered Seaquarium on Virginia Key that could rank as the county’s largest, trampling a spot favored by kayakers and tarpon amid a patchwork of vanishing seagrass flats.

With slips for 325 boats and a dry stack capable of storing another 500, the new marina would have space for mega yachts and a fleet of luxury boats. Nearly 90 slips could fit yachts over 80 feet long.

To accommodate so many vessels, the county wants to build floating docks and finger piers stretching more than halfway across a channel separating Virginia Key from fragile flats. 

In the last decade, Biscayne Bay has lost between 70% and 90% of the flats that once made it a haven for sea turtles, bonefish, lobsters and wading birds. 

A wave break that doubles as a fishing pier would also curve around the piers, extending more than four football fields in length. A fuel dock would cover more than 19,000 square feet.

READ MORE: Biscayne Bay Is In Danger Of A ‘Regime Shift,’ NOAA Study Finds

The complicated plan that also includes a fuel depot has raised dozens of questions with Florida Department of Environmental Protection regulators, who responded with a six-page list.

Among the omissions highlighted by regulators: whether the project will impact protected wetlands; if the county considered alternative designs that pose less risk to seagrass and other bay bottom wildlife; the amount of coral that might be damaged; details about dredging; a management plan for the docks that includes rules for sewage pump-outs and fuel spills; and how boats navigating the narrow channel surrounded by flats might be impacted by the marina.

Potential impacts to water quality, a chief concern by the county as it spends billions to remove septic tanks polluting the bay, were also not included, regulators noted. 

They also asked for details about a proposed special district intended to rezone the area to allow the marina but not yet approved by county commissioners.

To those who’ve spent years on the bay, constructing a busy marina as the impact from pollution, boating traffic and climate change worsens feels like another lethal blow.

“It’s a terrible idea,” said Capt. Bob Branham, a champion fishing guide who retired after 50 years fishing primarily in Biscayne Bay and would prefer to see a park highlighting the bay’s beauty.

For many of those years, the bay’s maze of flats separated by deep channels provided fertile fishing grounds for tarpon, bonefish and permit. Waters near the Seaquarium often provided a surprising refuge. 

During early morning drives across the causeway on his way to the Crandon marina, Branham said he could sometimes see bonefish tailing with their telltale fins out of the water along the beach. 

Permit congregated near the Seaquarium at an outfall and a derelict piling. The deeper channel drew so many tarpon that it became one of the bay’s worst kept fishing secrets.

“It’s still very fishy, that whole area,” he said. “For that reason alone this is a stupid idea. You put all these big yachts in there, they might as well dredge those flats right now because they’re going to be wiped out.”

Redevelopment of the old marine park

The proposed marina is part of a plan to redevelop the old marine park that once drew visitors from around the world to see its acrobatic dolphins and lonely killer whale. 

The county owns the land and, after evicting the Seaquarium two years ago for failing to maintain the property, tentatively agreed in December to lease it to Coconut Grove-based developer David Martin. 

Officials continue to negotiate a final lease, although the proposed deal calls for Martin to receive 95% of the profits from the marina boat slips.

When the county first announced plans to lease the land to Martin, reaction was mixed with a sense of nostalgia and relief that the site would no longer house wild animals amid accusations of mistreatment.

In a Miami Herald opinion piece, Martin said he grew up visiting the Seaquarium but recognized it was “time to breathe new life into this iconic site, restoring the Seaquarium’s place as a family-friendly destination.”

He promised a “vibrant fisherman’s village and a state-of-the-art aquarium and education center.” His vision, he wrote, was “rooted in accessibility, sustainability and community benefits” with no mention of Biscayne Bay. 

He mentioned the marina just once.

Martin did not respond to a request for comment emailed to his media representatives.

WLRN reached out to the county for details about the plans and requested the latest copy of the draft lease, along with information regarding project planning and whether the marina would take a toll on wildlife or impact navigation around the fragile flats.

The county charter requires that county land be managed “in a manner which will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations as a part of the public’s irreplaceable heritage.”

The charter also requires changes within the boundaries of aquatic preserves, including the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, to be approved by two-thirds of county voters.

In response, county officials said the “operation of a marina is acceptable” under the charter but did not provide details. They also did not provide a copy of the draft lease or cite the reason under public records laws for failing to do so. For the marine design, the county relied on Martin’s marina consultant, officials said.

“The marina will be built and operated by the lessee,” officials said. “The design details — slip counts, dimensions, layout — and the supporting technical analyses are the developer’s plans and program, not a County-prepared design. Those analyses sit with the applicant’s submittal rather than with the County as designer.”

In addition, officials said the county building department will determine whether the plans comply with the county’s Manatee Protection Plan, which relies on existing zoning to determine the density of motorboats. 

Last year, three manatees were killed by boats in Biscayne Bay, where boat collisions remain their leading cause of death. 

County environmental staff who typically oversee work impacting the bay had not weighed in on the marina plans, officials said, but are part of lease negotiations.

“The [environmental] department will be a key partner in all coral conservation, restoration, and education efforts taking place on the reimagined site,” officials said.

Because the new plans substantially change the operations by the Seaquarium, which opened in the 1950s, the county has also asked to rezone the site and create a special district, which requires a change to Miami-Dade’s Comprehensive Growth Management Plan.

According to the application, accepted last week, the new district would permit up to 325 slips and storage for up to 552 boats dry-stack towers. It’s not clear how many are allowed under existing zoning. The application is still being reviewed by county staff.

Development along the shores of Biscayne Bay normally undergoes review by a county shoreline advisory committee. But the committee has so far not reviewed the plans.

Environmental groups that would normally raise concerns over potential impacts to the bay have quietly been discussing the matter, hoping that Martin will live up to promises to better protect the environment.

What worries some is the size of boats the marina would attract.

“The reason we don’t have a mega yacht industry in Biscayne Bay and it’s in Fort Lauderdale is they’re too deep,” said Laura Reynolds, the policy advisor for Friends of Biscayne Bay. “As much as we may want to have deep wet slips, that’s not Biscayne Bay. It’s a shallow beautiful estuary and we can’t change that.”

Others see showcasing the bay as a better legacy for the shuttered Seaquarium.

“It was originally designed to be a display of aquatic life,” said Dave Doebler, co-chair of the Biscayne Bay Marine Health Coalition and a member of the county advisory board on managing the bay. “My question is how does the project not only become not damaging to the bay, but how does it become a net benefit.”

In addition to the Seaquarium marina, two other marinas on Virginia Key are winding through the pipeline, but will have to be approved by voters

For Branham, the fishing guide who spent his life working in a skiff on the bay, creating a marina that accommodates more large luxury boats runs counter to the easygoing bay that to many offered a rare sense of calm in chaotic Miami.

“The idea that it’s so bad that let’s just dredge it and give up on saving what’s left,” he said, exasperated. Fish “will come back. Don’t make it worse. Make it better.”