Woman tells Florida man she owns water

[mia]

Vero Beach property owner Joyce Khatibi told Melbourne, Florida fisherman Jose Ortiz he couldn’t fish from along State Road AIA because she owns the water. Now he’s planning a Fish Joyce’s Dock Facebook Live event.
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article228252844.html

...The flap has now led to a planned “event” — Fish Joyce’s Dock — in which Ortiz has invited other fishermen to come join him out on the water at this location at 9 a.m. Saturday.

Ortiz, via the Fish Joyce’s Dock page, promises to stream video on Facebook Live and initially expected about 400 people to take up his call.

But the Facebook page now has more than 7,000 followers and a large number of fisherman, put off by Khatibi’s claim that she owns the water, vow to take part. On Thursday afternoon, Ortiz said he now expects about 700 to turn out.

A post, with a photo of the proposed meeting area, urges boaters to anchor within a specific square in the water, well away from docks and to avoid sending waves and wakes in the direction of the properties....

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article228227534

[Submariner]

1. Except for Massachusetts, no one owns land below the high tide line in the U.S.

In Massachusetts it can be argued that the landowner owns the land down to the low tide line, but the landowner would probably lose if that is tested in court.

The doctrine states that all rights in tidelands and the water itself are held by the state "in trust" for the benefit of the public. In most states, this means that public ownership begins at the high water mark.

Up to about 1640, the Massachusetts Bay Colony originally followed this rule, until its legislators decided to transfer ownership of certain tidelands to coastal landowners, in order to encourage private wharf construction on these so-called "intertidal flats."