Florida boating law: what changed, and when

Lets a county or municipality adopt an ordinance authorising code enforcement officers to enforce the at-risk vessel and long-term anchoring permit provisions. Such an ordinance may not take effect until the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reviews and approves it. Approved by the Governor on 20 April 2026, chapter number assigned 21 April 2026, effective date 7/1/2026.

State law

Rules this changed: At-risk and derelict vessels · The long-term anchoring permit · Anchoring limitation areas at night

Section 3 of the act carries its own date: "Effective January 1, 2026, section 327.4111, Florida Statutes, is created to read:". It is the only section of the act with a 2026 date; the rest took effect on 1 July 2025.

State law

Rules this changed: The long-term anchoring permit

Prohibits an officer from performing a vessel stop or boarding a vessel without probable cause, makes safety and marine sanitation equipment violations a secondary offence, and creates the "Florida Freedom Boater" safety inspection decal. The bill page gives the effective date as 7/1/2025.

State law

Rules this changed: Stops, boardings and equipment checks

The Vessel Accountability act was approved by the Governor on 19 June 2025. Its enrolled text closes with "Except as otherwise provided in this act, this act shall take effect July 1, 2025." The act reworks the at-risk vessel provisions and the penalties that carry them.

State law

Rules this changed: At-risk and derelict vessels

Increases the prohibited anchoring and mooring distance near public mooring fields, designates specified sections of Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade County as grandfathered-in anchoring limitation areas, and restricts local regulation of vessels outside the marked boundaries of mooring fields in certain counties. The bill page gives the effective date as 5/19/2025.

State law

Rules this changed: Where you may not anchor · Anchoring limitation areas at night · What a city or county may regulate

NOAA published the final rule for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary on 17 January 2025. Under section 304(b) of the National Marine Sanctuaries Act the regulations take effect "after the close of a review period of forty-five days of continuous session of Congress" beginning that day, and NOAA said it would publish an announcement of the effective date in the Federal Register. A regulation the Governor of Florida certifies as unacceptable within that period "will not take effect in State waters" of the sanctuary. The rule separately delays sections 922.163(a)(5)(x) and 922.164(e)(3), (f)(2), (g)(1) and (h)(1) until 19 January 2027.

Federal rule

Rules this changed: Sanctuary rules in the Florida Keys

EPA lists the Indian River–Vero Beach to Fort Pierce Aquatic Preserve as a no-discharge zone with the date 10-01-2024, the fourth and newest of Florida's four designated zones.

Federal rule

Rules this changed: No-discharge zones and holding tanks