# Approval needed for Ft. Pickens?



## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

My ex-wife Meagan and I were down at Ft.Pickens snorkeling that large square structure beside the pier today, when I heard someone whistling from shore. I look up and it's a couple surf fishing and motioning for us to come in or move or something. Now I noticed this couple when we entered the water. I made sure that we were more than a respectful distance west of their location. We were snorkeling between the center to the west side of the structure (still far enough away from pier fisherman casing towards structure), while they were fishing east of the structure. I was in no way interferring with their activities. I chose to ignore them as they were whistiling and aggressively motioning for me to move. I continued checking out the pillars until I noticed Meagan was nearly back to shore. I decide to go ahead and head in, and Meagan tells me that she is told that we have to have "approval" to snorkel there. I've never heard of such, but I'm not going to completely throw out the possibility until I've presented the question to the Forum for an accurate answer. 

Thanks Y'all


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## lastcast (Oct 12, 2007)

Here's a link but, it's about as clear as the fishing regs!
http://www.nps.gov/guis/planyourvisit/snorkeling-and-diving-at-gulf-islands.htm


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## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

LOL. . .thanks Last. . . . Clear as Mud!


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## Firefishvideo (Jul 1, 2010)

Seemed pretty clear to me.....100' from fishing pier seems to be O.K. as stated in pub. If you were spearfishing, that would be different. .....however, I don't think is is wise to ever snorkel/dive around a fishing pier....legal or not....just not good for one's health - hooks,********,sharks,lines......what good can come of that????

Have you tried the Pickens Jetties.....they are the usual place for snorkeling/diving, and there is some cool stuff to see if you can do a little freediving. You WILL occasionally get heckled by fisherman there, but you will usually have a few other divers to back up your right to be there.

As far as permission goes, I think that at least in practice, at Pickens, it is only dive busineses that have to have a permit.


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## SaltAddict (Jan 6, 2010)

The "structure" you are referring to is the old pier. The wood was washed away by Erin or Opal I believe. It is still considered "pier" structure by the park service. For a few years the sign saying "stay away 200 ft" was removed. While the sign was gone, it was a crap shoot as to wether you could fish there or not (depending on the Ranger, fwc officer, coast guard, or whoever with a badge). Diving/freediving this area fell under the same "take your chances" mentality. Now that the signs are back up, I bet you would have been ticketed if the ranger saw you and was in a less than happy mood.

I was anchored on the east side (not touching the structure in any way) when the signs were down. The Escambia county sheriff's boat came up to us, asked how we were, looked at a few safety items, told us some one limited out on pompano the day before in that spot. He wished us a good day and left. One hour later, the FWC pretty much did the exact same thing. 30 minutes after that, the coast guard pulled up and told us we had to move. I told them the ECSD and FWC said it was cool, they didn't care, and still made us move.


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## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

Thanks Firefish and Salt. The lack of clarity comes in where the site says 100ft is the distance, but the current fishing pier says 200ft, for one. Either way it appears that it is at the discretion of the park supervisor so I will follow up with them for a solid answer. Yes I did snorkel the jetties. Nice for an easily accessible, local, last minute dip.


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## Firefishvideo (Jul 1, 2010)

kennethmandel62 said:


> Thanks Firefish and Salt. The lack of clarity comes in where the site says 100ft is the distance, but the current fishing pier says 200ft, for one. Either way it appears that it is at the discretion of the park supervisor so I will follow up with them for a solid answer. Yes I did snorkel the jetties. Nice for an easily accessible, local, last minute dip.


 Sorry, I forgot to mention that there are TWO NEW snorkeling reefs.....one 1.5 miles east of portofino ( parking lot H ) on the gulf side.....and one at chickenbone beach on the bay side.
I have not dove the second one ...you could call MBT Divers for Info....Here is the link to the video of the Gulf snorkeling reef....




Both should be good alternatives when they are grown up.


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## kennethmandel62 (Oct 3, 2007)

cool cool. A buddy of mine snorkeled one of them a couple weeks ago. He said that there isn't a whole lot of growth on it yet, but there was a bunch of spadefish. Thanks again

Kenny


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