Commercial fishers who dock their boats in Port Salerno are about to get 20 more slips and a rebuilt, reconfigured waterfront, after Martin County commissioners amended the lease governing the land under their docks. The vote on Thursday clears the way for expansion at what the county calls the last remaining commercial fishing dock in Martin County.
On June 4, 2024, Martin County commissioners voted 4-1, with Commissioner Sarah Heard dissenting, according to Hometown News. The deal covers the docks and waterfront property the Port Salerno Commercial Fishing Dock Authority leases from the county at Manatee Pocket, and it sets up the physical overhaul fishers have been pushing for: reconfiguring and rebuilding the docks while adding 20 new boat slips, as reported by Treasure Coast Newspapers.
The lease's duration was addressed in accounts of two votes on different dates. Treasure Coast Newspapers reports that the county and Dock Authority renewed the lease for 40 years in an amendment approved Nov. 12, 2026. Hometown News, describing a June 4, 2024 vote, says the amendment enables the lease to be extended for up to 40 years beyond the current lease's 2033 end date, with a limited option to renew for four additional 10-year terms.
A Waterfront That's Been Shrinking for Decades
Port Salerno has long been a hub for commercial fishing, per Treasure Coast Newspapers, and Manatee Pocket remains an important part of that working waterfront. That volume matters statewide, too: Florida's commercial fisheries generate about $3.2 billion in income and support 76,700 jobs, according to NOAA Fisheries figures cited by tcpalm.com.
But the industry's footprint has shrunk dramatically since Florida's 1994 net ban. A case study from the National Working Waterfront Network found Port Salerno had 253 full-time local commercial fishermen before the ban took effect; by the time researchers wrote the case study, there were only 40. The broader squeeze has continued as recreational marinas, resorts and restaurants began pushing commercial fishers out of waterfront space across the region, the same tcpalm.com reporting notes, part of what it describes as a pattern in which the state's first industry has nearly vanished amid explosive development.
Other Florida Ports Fighting the Same Battle
Martin County isn't alone in trying to carve out room for working boats. Port Canaveral's board approved the next phase of a $5.2 million commercial fishing facility, according to WESH, with plans for a new 16-slip dock and 125 feet of dedicated bulkhead. That project is expected to be completed in early 2027, per the station's reporting.
Further north on the Treasure Coast, Sebastian took a different route: the city used $3.7 million in state, Florida Inland Navigator District and privately raised funds to buy an old bar and an adjacent marina on the Indian River Lagoon and convert them into a working commercial dock, according to Florida Trend. About 10 fishers now land roughly 350,000 pounds of fish a year out of that Sebastian facility, tcpalm.com reports — a fraction of Port Salerno's haul, but another sign of how scarce working waterfront space has become up and down the coast.
Martin County's own description of the Port Salerno area underscores what's at stake locally: the county's website for the Port Salerno Community Redevelopment Area states that the area is home to the last remaining commercial fishing dock in Martin County. With the lease amendment now approved, the Dock Authority has the legal runway to move forward with rebuilding the docks and adding the new slips, even as the exact length of that runway remains described differently depending on the account.
