Lee County officials got an earful in May when for the first time they talked to residents about their plans for the old Trico Shrimp docks property on San Carlos Island.
From rebuilding dock space to requiring the shrimp boats to leave during hurricanes, the multimillion-dollar project is within sights of the horizon, officials explained May 21. While asking for pilings to contain the boats during storm surge, other ideas are just suggestions
Shrimper royalty hears the plan
Kiesel. Gala. Henderson. Erickson. Semmer. Island shrimping royalty was among the three dozen or more who listened as Assistant County Manager Glen Salyer and design engineer Mica Jackson of HighSpans Engineering laid out plans for the county-owned 5.5-acre property.
High Spans Engineering is a Fort Myers firm that has done numerous county projects. Commissioners selected the company to do the design work in October of 2025. The contract is paying them just under $1.2 million.
The shrimpers were heartened to see a design that showed 15 shrimp boats moored at the property.
“What I see looks pretty good so far,” said Chris Gala, co-owner with husband, George, of Big Daddy’s Seafood and former co-owner of Trico Shrimp.
Chris Gala is a board member for the Southern Shrimp Alliance. Founded in 2002, the SSA works to ensure the continued vitality and existence of the U.S. shrimp industry. T
he livelihoods of U.S. shrimpers are threatened by cheap, unfairly traded imported shrimp. The U.S market has become a dumping ground for shrimp that are turned away from other major seafood importing countries. Proposed restrictions on shrimp fishing and rapidly increasing costs of doing business also loom over the industry.
The SSA is committed to preserving the long term viability of one of our nation’s most valuable fisheries, which for decades has been a foundation of the economy and social structure of countless coastal communities throughout the Gulf and Southeast regions.
The time frame is less encouraging. County officials also said for the first time that the $7.5 million job creation grant from the state will not pay for the entire project.
“The full scope is going to be well in excess of $10 million,” Salyer said.
The grant money will also have to be spent by the summer of 2028, Salyer said, or it will have to be repaid. The county is applying to the Treasury Department for a grant from the BP oil spill settlement fund that would finish the project.
Design ‘Looks good so far,’ timeline not so much
It will take 12 to 15 months after permits are issued to have the property ready for three boats. That time frame relies on the Corps of Engineers nationwide permit, which allows for the dredging of as much as 50 cubic yards with a shortened review.
However mooring 15 boats and construction of the 350-foot bulkhead – with the extensive dredging it will require – will require more extensive permit review. Federal shutdowns and layoffs have stretched permit review times, and project timelines show the permit application for the second phase of work being made in the summer of 2027.
Dredging to a depth of at least 10 feet up against the bulkhead will be necessary to accommodate the shrimp boats.
In light of permit review times experienced for other local projects such as the Fort Myers Beach Pier and the Fort Myers Yacht Basin, that permit might not be forthcoming before 2029. That would mean full construction likely would not finish until as late as 2030.
“When you’re dealing with the Corps of Engineers and DEP (the state Department of Environmental Protection) you’re at their mercy,” Jackson said. “The work will take place in a sensitive area.”
Virtually the entirety of Estero Bay is included in the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve. There has been some controversy surrounding the exact boundary of the preserve in the busy commercial Matanzas Pass area. Legislative efforts to nail down the boundary – efforts rooted in the desire by owners of nearby waterfront properties to dredge to increase access for larger boats – have run into stiff environmental opposition and failed.
Jackson described the county property as “adjacent to the Aquatic Preserve”.
Permitting a hurdle – as always
“Permitting is a big issue,” he said. “It is a sensitive area.”
Plans call for a large boat ramp to serve county and other government entity launches, including post-hurricane barges. Both West Coast Inland Navigation District Executive Director Justin McBride and Fort Myers Beach Harbormaster Curt Ludwig wanted to know whether other government entities will be allowed use of the boat ramp. Jackson said that’s being considered.
The ramp is an expansion of an existing use. However, a new use will complicate matters.
The county sees the property as a working waterfront, and as a base of operations should another storm like Hurricane Ian – or even Helene or Milton – hit the area. The county hopes to lease the property to a shrimping operation, with the understanding that the county would take over the entire property in the event of a natural disaster.
“The county isn’t necessarily eager to see shrimp vessels riding out a Category 5,” Salyer said. “We’re going to have to balance the needs you have with the needs we have.”
Doug Kiesel, whose family has been in shrimping since the “pink gold” was discovered of the Tortugas in 1950, said the boats shouldn’t be at dock with a big storm coming.
“We used to run up the river all the way to the Franklin Locks,” he said.
County wants boats gone when storms come – nearby residents, too
That sounds like the right option to Deb Macer, secretary of the Gulf Cove Park, a resident-owned 55 and older co-op near the county property at the foot of the Matanzas Pass Bridge.
After Hurricane Ian residents there returned to find much of the shrimp fleet had been left grounded in their park, in many cases literally on top of their homes, including the Macers.
“I see all those boats, and I wonder what’s to keep them from coming to see us again,” she said.
Husband Stacy Macer said almost a dozen shrimp boats, tied together and with full crews on board, decimated the park, landing literally on top of homes as 12 feet of storm surge washed them ashore. The boats were re-floated by cranes as part of an $8.5 million state-funded operation, but Deb Macer said the community has seen no help at all as they try to re-build.
“It’s been a long, long trip, and I don’t want to start all over again,” Deb Macer said.
Grant Erickson, owner of Erickson & Jensen Seafood and his own shrimp boats, has another solution he’s pushing for. He says that so-called “storm surge pilings” would have kept the boats at the dock instead of atop homes after Ian.
Surge pilings are 30-foot high pilings that allow boats to ride out storms at their moorings. The boats simply ride atop the surge, settling down as the storm surge subsides.
Erickson said the nearby Key West Express docks have such pilings, and their 170-foot catamaran was sitting at the dock when the surge subsided.
“I’m pushing for that in this project,” he said.
Jackson said it’s being considered, but there are other factors at work, including the county’s desire for boats to leave before the storm.
Lawsuit could cloud future
The waterfront, which the county calls the San Carlos Island Maritime Park, was home to the Trico Shrimp company before Hurricane Ian. Trico owner Dennis Henderson is planning to sue the county over the breaking of a lease that was supposed to run until 2034.
Henderson claims that when he went to the property after the storm the county had fenced him out, and that county officials threatened he and his workers with arrest.
The county claims Henderson made no effort to clean-up or repair the property. Commissioners agreed in March to break the Trico lease. Trico attorney Michael Kayusa delivered a demand letter to the county attorney’s office shortly thereafter.
The county must respond by September 15.
Trico’s accountant says that the company brought in $93 million over the decade before the storm.
Even before the storm the shrimping industry was struggling due to imports of cheap, foreign, farm-grown shrimp and rising waterfront property values. More recently fuel price spikes because of the war in Iran have added to the squeeze.
The 35 or-so boats using San Carlos Island docks before Ian are fewer than 10 now. At one point more than 300 boats called the island home.
Shrimpers say the imported shrimp are loaded with harmful chemicals and lacking in flavor, but they are cheaper.
Other concerns include flooding, offices
The potential suit isn’t the only hurdle. Island resident Jonna Semmer, who lives next-door, points out there was a nature trail on the property before the storm, and says the fill already on the property floods hers.
She also questioned the use of the old Southwest Florida Marine Institute, a school on site that was closed before Ian. Salyer said the building will remain, likely hosting county offices.
Semmer also questions whether the existing uses comport with development orders she says are attached to the property. Salyer said there are no such orders.
There is also a complaint Henderson says he filed with DEP over protected mangroves he says were removed as the Ian-damaged buildings and docks were removed.
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Charlie Whitehead covers Lee County and Fort Myers. Reach him at Cwhitehead@gannett.com
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: County shows plans for San Carlos Island shrimp dock re-build
Reporting by Charlie Whitehead, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
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