PWC riding in the Florida Keys. Areas not permitted?

[Blazah1080]

For the life of me I can't figure out how these people got so much public land/water to banish PWC's from. It's crazy.

In the picture a few posts back that I posted, you are not permitted inside Biscayne national park or Everglades National park. That is 97% of the upper keys bay side. Which also happens to be some of the most amazing back country boating ever.

After doing some research the Biscayne PWC ban was put in place without any reaction taken from the public back in 2006 ish. How in the world it hasn't been challenged is a question of mine.

Now normally it seems like inside the blue line you'd be able to operate a PWC. However, those light green boxes that say National Wildlife refuge, surly we can't ride our skis in there right?

Who knew the Florida Keys were so unfriendly to PWC's. Meanwhile I was in shallow water not doing any damage today and I saw a flats boat pumping sand/mud trying to get unstuck.

Also saw a claim that 15 out of 15 studies revealed that PWC's do less damage to the environment when compared w/ boats.

[K447]

...
... normally it seems like inside the blue line you'd be able to operate a PWC. However, those light green boxes ...

Did you mean outside the (Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Boundary) blue line?

Inside a sanctuary boundary seems like a place where restrictions could be expected.

[Blazah1080]

For the middle to Northern keys, inside the blue line is okay, inside the red line is not okay. Middle to southern/western keys it appears that inside the blue line is okay except where the light green boxes are. Which again, is pretty much 100% of where you want to actually be in the keys. Wonder if a bay boat with a jet drive is banned. Might have to pick one of those up.

[TimeBandit]

For the life of me I can't figure out how these people got so much public land/water to banish PWC's from. It's crazy. .......

First, I'm on your side. I feel ya'. However, you must fully understand the environmentalist-mentality behind this if you are ever to understand it. Like I said back on post #8, it's less about banning the PWC (jet ski) and more about "banning" humans via the technology that couriers them into designated endangered/threatened habitat. It's really about humans being banned from places they feel we should not be. You say boaters are still allowed... you saw them chewing up the bottom, getting unstuck in the shallows ... believe me, they (environmental groups) would LOVE ban the boats too, but boaters are just too-big of a genre to confront. Boaters would show up in numbers to protest for sure. I like to be a realist, call a spade a spade. We all know why jet skis are banned ... jet-ski'ers, a smaller sub-genre, a genre known to be rowdy, disrespectful, and disruptive - guess what, that was a slam-dunk to ban us - especially given a craft (aka a precision instrument) that can operate in the shallows successfully. They simply banned capability.

I'd highly suggest you download & read the actual Title 15 link I posted back on post #29, as this contains an update and interesting findings that debunk a lot of the initial 2006 justifications/claims for the bans.

Look.... I get the general principle that we don't want to endanger/disrupt certain habitats (justifiably-so), and also I get THAT is dependent on per-human behavior and responsibility. So I'd be in favor for license/waiver path, to allow any human (regardless of craft) that qualifies/accepted, to be able to traverse these zones freely. I don't sport my jet ski - I usually fish from it, or use it like a boat (boater here). So I hate being lump'ed into a genre that, well, does have it's bad apples here and there.

[mdilabs]

Hello to everyone,
I read all the posts of this threat hoping to find an answer but I have not.
I am looking for a portable GPS that I can download maps that will have the PWC restricted areas marked. The distance from Key Largo to Key West is more than 100 miles and there are plenty of places where I could potentially put my skis in the water. Having said that, Marco Island and he South West coast of Florida is about the same distance from Miami and it becomes a pain to have to spend hours to find maps with the restricted areas, notwithstanding that when you ride you never know if you crossed into the restricted zone.
So my question is if there is a GPS or App that has maps that get updated and include the PWC restricted zones. We use skis overseas not just for fun riding around within a small area but for island hopping covering distances between islands in the +/- 25 nm and this is what we would like to do in Florida and the Bahamas as well.
Thanks for all help and replies.