Sounds of gunfire are setting off alarms for shoreline residents.
Residents of Perico Bay Club and others in the coastal community are urging state wildlife officials to establish clearer safety buffers between residential developments and hunters who legally use nearshore state waters.
Residents are citing concerns about proximity, safety and noise during hunting season.
Paul Leppanen, a Perico Bay Club resident and member of the community’s security committee, said residents want limits on how close hunters can operate near shared recreational areas.
“We don’t want to stop the hunting,” Leppanen said. “We know they have a right. What we want is a buffer — a cone or an umbrella — around our property.”
Perico Bay Club and some nearby communities, including Perico Island and Harbor Isle, began formally raising concerns around 2019 after residents reported repeated predawn gunfire near walking paths and waterfront areas near their homes. Leppanen said the combined communities represent more than 1,500 households.
The issue resurfaced Jan. 3 after a resident walking on a boardwalk near Spoonbill Bayou encountered several waterfowl hunters positioned close to the structure.
According to a letter provided to the community board, a resident was nearby when a hunter discharged a shotgun, prompting another hunter to admonish him. The resident reported feeling unsafe and left the area.
Leppanen said waterfowl hunting has occurred in the area since before the condominiums were built in the mid-1980s but increasing shoreline development and recreational use have narrowed the margin for safety.
Most reported encounters between hunters and Perico Bay residents have occurred at a footbridge owned by the Perico Bay Club that provides access to shallow waters known informally as Spoonbill Bayou, located about 100 yards from the nearest occupied residence.
“The boardwalk extends out into the bayou,” he said. “People go there to sit, watch birds and enjoy the water. In some cases, hunters are positioned close enough that someone could be in their line of fire.”
Under state law, regulation of hunting falls under the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The Florida Administrative Code governing migratory bird and waterfowl hunting establishes season dates, bag limits and legal methods of take but does not tackle the larger issue of setting uniform minimum distances for hunters to maintain from residential structures. The code allows waterfowl hunting on publicly accessible state waters during established seasons unless a site-specific closure or restricted hunting area has been formally adopted by the state.
Leppanen said residents have raised the issue repeatedly with the FWC and Manatee County government over several years but have not received a resolution.
According to Leppanen, the FWC has acknowledged safety concerns, discussed the concept of buffer zones and referenced proposed rule language circulated in 2021 that suggested a 300-foot setback based on the effective range of birdshot, but no such rule was adopted and no timeline for action was provided.
He said county officials deferred authority to the state, telling residents that hunting regulations fall under the FWC.
Similar concerns have surfaced in other Florida communities. In St. Petersburg, residents along Lake Maggiore raised safety complaints in 2024 about wintertime duck hunting near homes. Homeowners near Lake Parker in Lakeland voiced similar concerns in 2022 and again in 2024. And in Pinellas County in early 2024, police confirmed that waterfowl hunters reported near residential shorelines in Indian Shores and Redington Shores were acting legally, highlighting ongoing tension between shoreline developments and traditional hunting activity.
“This issue goes quiet for a while, then it comes back,” Leppanen said. “All we’re asking for is a reasonable safety zone so people can enjoy their community without fear.”
Duck and goose hunting seasons run through late January, according to state regulations.
The Islander reached out to the FWC for comment by email Jan. 12, but as of Islander press time Jan. 19, the FWC had not responded.