Cruise ships stir up a hurricane's worth of sediment, Key West monitoring shows

When cruise ships lumber into Key West’s shallow harbor, they can sometimes churn up a storm of sediment more potent than a hurricane, new monitoring by the city shows.

A year’s worth of tracking by the College of the Florida Keys found 32 events where turbidity measurements not only exceeded limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency but often reached levels above what hurricanes like Helene and Milton generate when they pass by, according to Patrick Rice, principal investigator for marine research at the college.

“There's 32 events that exceed those turbidity standards over the past year. So it's like having 32 hurricanes, basically,” Rice told city commissioners during an update last week.

Key West hired Rice to monitor turbidity, which can damage sea life including coral and seagrass, after state lawmakers and Gov. Ron DeSantis pre-empted a local effort to limit massive ships sailing into the port where channels are only about 34 feet and most ships have a draft of 27 feet. Port Miami, by comparison, is between 50 and 52 feet deep.

The city has since enacted its own ordinance on a city-owned docks, limiting ship arrivals to one a day at the only privately owned Pier B. In March, DeSantis and the cabinet agreed to expand the lease space at Pier B for 25 years to allow larger ships.

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