SUWANNEE COUNTY, Fla. -- The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has deemed a 51-mile stretch of the Suwannee River an idle-speed, no-wake zone.
The FWC applied the boating restrictions to the area which runs from the County Road 340 Bridge at Rock Bluff to one mile below the Fowler Bluff Boat Ramp, when the Suwannee River reaches nine feet above mean sea level at the Wilcox gauge, where flood stage is 11 feet.
"The Suwannee reached that level today," said Captain Martin Redmond, area supervisor at the FWC's Lake City office.
The FWC made an area of the Santa Fe River that goes from River Rise in O'Leno State Park, west to the confluence of the Suwannee River an idle-speed, no-wake zone June 29. That is when the Santa Fe River reached 17 feet above mean sea level at the Three Rivers gauge, where flood stage is 19 feet. That idle-speed, no-wake declaration still remains in effect.
FWC officers will be patrolling both sections of rivers to enforce the idle-speed, no-wake zone.
"Water levels on the Suwannee and Santa Fe rivers can fluctuate rapidly, creating for unsuspecting boaters navigational hazards, such as floating debris, submerged rocks and stumps and new shoaling conditions. We want everyone to be safe," Redmond said.
The idle-speed, no-wake zone will remain in effect until the Suwannee River's water level recedes below nine feet.
First Coast News