One kayak tour company might be making the wrong waves in a Holmes Beach canal.
Residents Roger and Irene Alvarez filed a lawsuit April 1 against Bradenton-based Fun Florida Tours seeking more than $50,000 in damages and an injunction to prohibit the company from, among other things, entering Sportsmans Harbor.
The harbor is an inlet off of Anna Maria Sound that runs up to the Alvarez property at 201 N. Harbor Drive, where manatees can sometimes be found in the waterway.
Alvarez told The Islander March 27 that different boat tours make their way into Sportsmans Harbor to see manatees but Fun Florida Tours crossed a line.
The company offers guided kayak tours featuring transparent vessels lighted for visibility in the surrounding water. The tours run at different times, including 8-11 p.m.
Alvarez said he has seen tour guides bring people into the harbor and right up to his seawall in an attempt to “herd” manatees for tourgoers.
He expressed concern about tours disturbing manatees by pushing them against the seawall and projecting light — each of the kayaks are lighted with about 10,000 lumens of LED lighting — into the water.
“Their whole thing is to get to these manatees,” Alvarez said. “It’s almost every single day, depending on the weather. … You have a calf that’s up against the wall, literally trying to get away from these people.”
“It’s really harassing these manatees,” he added. “This is a haven for them and what we’re trying to do is keep them out of this canal.”
Alvarez also expressed concern about liability involving his property and the tours, since kayakers were grabbing onto and pushing off of his property during the tours — including one piling with electric wiring.
He said he spoke with tour guide and tourgoers about the matter, but only was met with aggression.
So, Alvarez hired attorney Stuart Levine of the Tampa-based Walters, Levine & DeGrave law firm and filed a lawsuit against Florida Fun Tours.
The lawsuit seeks a temporary and permanent injunction against the tour company to prohibit it from:
- Entering Sportsmans Harbor;
- Lighting kayaks with LED “or any other” bright lighting;
- Allowing customers to speak in volumes of more than 60 decibels, or “a normal conversation level;”
- Using cameras or cell phones with lights, “unless the cameras are focused away from the Alvarez residence;”
- Allowing customers to touch Alvarez’s dock, section of the seawall and anything on it.
Alvarez’s complaint claims the tour company spends at least 1.5 hours every day at his dock and seawall, during which the lights and noise caused by the tours are a disturbance.
The lawsuit claims that the tour company’s actions constitute a private nuisance, as well as put the property owners at risk of liability claims.
The complaint states, “The customers frequently hold on to the Alvarez dock and seawall to balance themselves as they take pictures. They have grappled onto the docks, pulled electrical conduits from lift poles, grabbed onto the propeller on boats, pushed off boats and docks with paddles and otherwise unrestrictedly enjoy themselves all at the expense of Alvarez.”
The lawsuit also claims the tour company’s actions had caused him more than $50,000 in damages, including the diminution of property value, increased cost of insurance, as well as exposure to personal injury and property damage claims.
Fun Florida Tours did not respond to an April 8 call from The Islander.
No hearings were scheduled for the case as of April 6, according to the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court’s website, records.manateeclerk.com.