The waters off the northern tip of Anna Maria Island may be closed off to swimmers.
Anna Maria city commissioners reached consensus Aug. 28 to move forward with making Bean Point, from the Fern Street beach access to the island’s northern tip, a no-swimming area.
The action comes in response to recent incidents at Bean Point, where swimmers got caught in rip currents.
An Aug. 9 rescue involved Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Brett Getman entering the water, throwing a life ring to a 15-year-old caught in a rip current and pulling him ashore to safety.
The teen’s 45-year-old father also was rescued from the water. He suffered cardiac and died the next day in a Bradenton hospital.
Another father-son pair required rescue from the waters off Bean Point on Aug. 12, when MCSO deputy Matt Daugherty entered the water to help rescue them.
Daugherty and Getman, alongside deputies Vince Bowman and Nate Boggs, who relayed information to dispatch from the shore during the incidents, are nominated to receive MCSO Life Saving Awards for their role in the water rescues.
At an Aug. 14 commission meeting, Mayor Mark Short proposed prohibiting swimming off of Bean Point so swimmers and first responders alike do not continue to be endangered by rip currents.
The mayor returned to the Aug. 28 commission meeting and asked for the board’s input on the proposed no-swimming area.
Short said people who live on the island know not to swim off of Bean Point, which has “tough” and “deceiving” currents, but visitors lack that knowledge.
Commissioner Gary McMullen, who has been visiting the island since the 1940s, said swimming off the Point has been dangerous for years.
He said he and his father used to avoid going further than knee-deep into the water in the area when they fished there in the past due to that danger.
McMullen added that he was “all for” prohibiting swimming off of Bean Point.
Commissioner Kathleen Morgan also voiced support for establishing the proposed no-swimming area. She said swimmers would only need to take a short walk south to enjoy the water in a safer location.
Short said the city needed to figure out some logistics for the no-swimming area, such as whether it would use signs and/or buoys to inform beachgoers and mark off the area.
He said he would work with Manatee County and the city’s first responders to determine how to handle the matter.
The city commission will meet next at 5:01 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, at city hall, 10005 Gulf Drive.