I just don't get MD'ing in Florida

[cathexis]

I'm sure I see all kinds of You-Tube videos of people working Fla. waters
close to shore for tourist rings, etc. Yet the LAW seems to say flat out No,no!

Can anyone fill me in on how to detect Fla. beaches & waters?

Here is a what I've found & many have seen:

Laws regarding metal detecting in Florida are rather confusing –we always encourage anyone interested in metal detecting to always get the permission of the land owner or manager before detecting - that will prevent misunderstandings about what is permitted, trespassing, etc. Most cities and counties have their own ordinances regarding metal detecting - the City Manager, County Commission, or the Parks/Recreation Department can probably tell you. Most coastal cities and counties in Florida do allow metal detecting on their beaches, although some, like St. Johns County, have ordinances that prohibit the removal of historical objects from county lands. They’re all a little different, so that’s why we suggest contacting them directly.

Detecting on state lands is different and the removal of historical objects from state lands is prohibited. Some coastal state parks do not allow metal detecting at all, some will allow it between the shoreward toe of the dunes and the mean high water line, but only for modern objects. Some state parks will only allow detecting for personal items that are specified as lost in a particular area. If counties or cities lease coastal lands from the state, they are required to abide by state laws. Every state park will have an entry station with a ranger on duty, so always ask first.

As for metal detecting in the water, all lands that are below the mean high water line are considered state sovereignty submerged lands and, while it is not against the law to possess a metal detector in the water, it IS against the law to disturb the bottom sediments. So, if something is detected, it would be illegal to dig for it.

It seems like only a very narrow strip of SOME
Fla. beaches are searchable and NONE of the waters- period. What is the real
situation down there?

Here's just one video, clearly from Fla. and recent:



And that guy don't need 30# weight belt to work the kiddie pool! So what gives

TIA,

Andrew

 

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[Tom_in_CA]

cathexis, where did you get that quote you posted, which begins: "Laws regarding metal detecting in Florida .... " ?

That almost sounds as if someone sent a "pressing question inquiry" to some bored bureaucrat or archie ?

I'm sure that I could get the same sort of answer here in CA about our beaches too, if I asked enough lawyers on the govt. payroll, or purist archies.

I chuckled at the part at the end about how .... you can't dig or disturb the sand at the bottom of the water. Well GEE, I suppose if anyone, anywhere (park, land, sea, beach, forest, etc...) went and asked: "Hi. Can I please disturb and alter the foilage or sand for my own profit at the public's expense while disturbing cultural artifacts please ?" That you'd get some answer like that . But the *reality* is something often-times different. That no one *really* cares less if you dug on the beach, or if your daughter "harvested and removed" that seashell for her grade school art project, or if the old man with the detector plied the beach for loose change, etc....

If "cultural heritage" (the fact that .... gasp ... you might find a 1959 memorial penny) bothers some archie, fine then, how good was your math in the first place ? In my nearly 40 yrs. of this, I have NEVER had anyone come up to me, armed with a calculator, doing the math on the ages of coins I found.

 

[G.I.B.]

Florida is a big state with beaches all around. (except for the north border, they just talk funny up there)

I can better answer your question if you tell me the area you are interested in.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Except for about 20 miles along the Treasure coast between approximately just north of Sebastion Inlet south to Vero Beach . (This stretch along the Treasure Coast is open for detecting, but only from mean low tide line to toe of the dunes, water is off limits ) The 99.9% of the rest of Florida beaches are open for detecting including the water.




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DT2016

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Treasure hunter, thanks for clarifying this once again. As this seems to be a recurring question in that state.

But a follow-up question for you: Since what you're saying is true, then how do people come up with things that seem to say the contrary? Like what the op here is posting/quoting ?

 

[Scrappy]

I only found beer cans until I found an 8r. Then I only found beer cans afterward. New Smyrna Beach area.

 

[Dr. Syn]

Treasure hunter, thanks for clarifying this once again. As this seems to be a recurring question in that state.

But a follow-up question for you: Since what you're saying is true, then how do people come up with things that seem to say the contrary? Like what the op here is posting/quoting ?

Maybe it's as simple as, would you tell someone it was okay to MD in your honey hole? Fewer folks looking the more to find for the few.

 

[cathexis]

Here's one example:

http://http://www.mdhtalk.org/cf/city-regulation.cfm?st=FL

There are plenty more you can search for. But oddly there is NOT a lot of commentary out there like each of you has just posted on this
thread. Where I live in Northern Va. MD'ing is a hobby where finding a site that won't get you instant arrest is the major hurdle. But now
I have a daughter who has moved to Fla. and so now the idea of working beaches and waters gets a lot more interesting to me. I am not
naïve about Laws vs. Reality, it's just that I lack the knowledge and experience of you since I live in such a restricted area. Imagine MD'ing
the East Lawn ! (HHOK). And the amount of nosey, PC-minded busybodies mean before doing any hobbies like this you take the advise of
Ronald Reagan: "Trust, but Verify." <-- Words to live by.

BTW, I'm headed to the Fort Myers/Sanibel Is. area in Nov. and that's the area I'm specifically interested in.

Andrew

 

[Scrappy]

WildWildBill was from Florida

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Maybe it's as simple as, would you tell someone it was okay to MD in your honey hole? Fewer folks looking the more to find for the few.

Dr. Syn, I might be inclined to believe this, if the "dire sounding comments" were coming from fellow md'rs. But in some cases (like the O.P.s quoted here), are coming from non-md'rs.

Hence my question remains: Why does one md'r inquire of bureaucrats, and receive dire sounding "no's" . Yet another person inquires and gets a "yes" ?

And why is it that seemingly only Florida gets this constant confusion, and no other beach-fronting state ?

I think it's because of the self-feeding and self-fulfilling vicious circle that evolves, the moment a SINGLE speck of beach gets a "rule". The minute any md'r gets an inkling (ie.: reads a scary post or link), it merely causes them to inquire (much like the OP in this thread. Can you blame them?). But curiously, that only feeds others to do the same thing, because THEY TOO now are "hearing some rumor" of off-limits beaches in such & such state. And the vicious circle just feeds on itself, when the reality often is: no one cares, just avoid obvious historic sensitive monuments. Or ... no one cared except the single purist archie, sitting in his ivory castle, who ... years ago, answered someone's "pressing question" with verbiage they thought applied. Thus sending skittish md'rs forever-more seeking clarification from then on out. Thus only fueling more and more of the same nonsense.

It's as if we md'rs can be our own worst enemy, eh ?

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Here's one example:

http://http://www.mdhtalk.org/cf/city-regulation.cfm?st=FL
.....

Andrew, with all due respect for that mdhtalk site: I put very little stock in it. Here's why:

You have to understand how such compendiums got their start TO BEGIN WITH. The psychology involved in how people went to assemble such lists. To un-ravel this, read my contribution "alternative view..." by Tom Tanner, which is a contributed article to that very website. You'll see the tab there.

.... Where I live in Northern Va. MD'ing is a hobby where finding a site that won't get you instant arrest is the major hurdle......

I have a suspicion you are in the same boat there too. And I have a suspicion that other md'rs in N. VA are having no troubles finding public land to detect on, "without being instantly arrested". And you would be hardpressed to cite ANY example of someone being "instantly arrested". And if you could find laws or rules to cite, that it would fall into the same line of reasoning as the FL issue.

 

[G.I.B.]

Ft. Myers and Sanibel are all good for beach and water hunting, with a couple of exceptions. (The east coast has lease areas that keep you out of the water, but not off the beach)

No state parks, without permission from the rangers. (most of the parks have said yes to me recently, just stay below the dunes)

Never hunt in dunes. They help protect the shore. No digging in any dunes ever.

No historical sites. They are clearly listed.

Otherwise, between the bottom of the dunes out until you start gasping for breath is just fine for detecting. SCUBA gear if you want to go deeper.

Have a good time.

 

[pat-tekker-cat]

You should have fun in Ft Myers/Sanibel. I found lotsa stuff over there. There's a nice beach just over the bridge there at Captiva/Sanibel, is it? Where everybody goes shelling (isn't that Blind Pass bridge?).
Fort Myers is a BIG HUGE BEACH for miles...... I'd stick to the areas where most ppl congregate. The pier area, the nicer restaurant/bar areas, public parking areas.... Even Estero bch is a good place to hit.
Maybe someone from that area will pipe in, I'm on the other side of the state, so it's not really my main stomping grounds.

LOL, I know Steve, good to see him, even if on video. He used to be our president of our metal detectors club, down here. Used to see him all the time, but he's moved a little further up north. I didn't recognize the beach they was filming at, offhand. Been about a yr, since we've run up on each other, out there.
Hey Steve, if ya readin this......

So anywhooo, get your detector and get out there!
You'll see what I mean, about it being a big huge beach area.......
GL & HH

 

[Dr. Syn]

I lived in Ft. Misery for years, and worked at the beach. Moss Marine. Most of the hot spots have been named. Depending on what you are looking for, the hotels on the beaches can provide you with all kinds of stuff the tourists drop and loose in the sand.

I always like the islands off of Red Fish pass. Just one of those places that looked like where a pirate might dig a few holes. At one time it was part of the whole shebang, before a hurricane parted it off. If you like fishing, it's a hot spot for quite a few types.

 

[Dr. Syn]

Forgot who, but some asked why one govt official would say no and one would say yes. Least my experience, go to any two govt employees and ask the same question and you'll get two different answers. You'll find with any govt office the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing.

Case in point. I recently had a package sent registered air mail from Hong Kong. Post Office lost it once it left HK. I filed a lost parcel report. Then it showed up with a note of non deliverable due to address. Won't get into that, but too say a lazy part time carrier. Anywho, I tracked down the package. Picked it up, had it scanned in front of me, and signed for it.

Couple days later I get an email from the PO telling me they had found my package and would deliver it the following day. Yeah it didn't show.

Wait it gets better. Nearly a month after I picked up the package I get another email from the PO. This one letting me know they are still looking for my package, and will let me know when they find it.

Talk about a screw up, they got folks looking for a package that doesn't exist, and with all that no one looks at the tracking info which clearly shows it was delivered.

And you wonder why you can get two different answers from two govt officials...

 

[Dr. Syn]

Forgot who, but some asked why one govt official would say no and one would say yes. Least my experience, go to any two govt employees and ask the same question and you'll get two different answers. You'll find with any govt office the left hand has no clue what the right hand is doing.

Case in point. I recently had a package sent registered air mail from Hong Kong. Post Office lost it once it left HK. I filed a lost parcel report. Then it showed up with a note of non deliverable due to address. Won't get into that, but too say a lazy part time carrier. Anywho, I tracked down the package. Picked it up, had it scanned in front of me, and signed for it.

Couple days later I get an email from the PO telling me they had found my package and would deliver it the following day. Yeah it didn't show.

Wait it gets better. Nearly a month after I picked up the package I get another email from the PO. This one letting me know they are still looking for my package, and will let me know when they find it.

Talk about a screw up, they got folks looking for a package that doesn't exist, and with all that no one looks at the tracking info which clearly shows it was delivered.

And you wonder why you can get two different answers from two govt officials...

 

[cathexis]

Lots more helpful replies and again, my thanks!

Some may question how "dire" conditions might be around here where I live. But I didn't start this thread to argue
with or to prove anything to anyone. Neither did I come in to be some Nervous Nancy - if you are reading that in me
you're reading something in there that didn't come from me. The truth is there are plenty of sites that list all these
state rules that may or may not be true. Instead, I started this thread to ASK. Meaning to find out the real story from
those who know best - You guys!

Just consider those replies too. If some other Poster gets freaked out because I asked about MD laws in Fla. well then,
he obviously didn't read your replies did he?

Thanks!

Andrew