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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission last week arrested a Key West man with a history of derelict-boat violations that have cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars in vessel-removal bills over the past six years, according to his arrest report.
Since 2020, the FWC has issued James Huckabay Jr., 69, more than 20 citations about boats that he has either owned or lived on and had no means of propulsion or steering. The state paid contractors more than $372,000 during that time to remove the vessels from the water, according to his probable-cause warrant.
His violations were so numerous and egregious, a court revoked Huckabay’s ability to register and title a boat in the state, according to the FWC.
Key West police arrested Huckabay last Wednesday on two Monroe County felony derelict-boat warrants based on a recent FWC investigation, according to court records.
Key West marine patrol officers went to Old Houseboat Row on 3999 South Roosevelt Boulevard to find Huckabay. Three officers in a patrol boat saw him and two other people riding in a dinghy with a blue canopy in Cow Channel. The officers turned on their emergency lights and ordered Huckabay to stop, according to the Key West arrest report. He ignored them at first, but eventually stopped, and he was arrested, the report states.
FWC Officer Riana Sargent stated in her report that she saw a 20-foot sailboat moored to a 20-foot floating structure in the water off Key West this month. The structure was partially sunk and resting on the seagrass bottom, according to Sargent’s report.
Sargent contacted the sailboat’s registered owner, who told her she could no longer afford the vessel and she was letting Huckabay stay on it, the report states. Neither the boat nor the floating structure had any means of propulsion or steering, according to the report.
Sargent had two run-ins with Huckabay last year, according to her report. The first was in March 2025, when she investigated a derelict vessel that he owned. She told Huckabay he was not allowed to own a boat in Florida and instructed him to anchor it so it could be removed from the water, according to her report.
When the state-contracted salvage company arrived to remove it, it was gone, according to the report. Huckabay told Sargent that he moved the vessel to another anchorage, where a windstorm blew it away, and he believed it sank. The boat was never found, Sargent wrote in her report.
The officer then found Huckabay with a pontoon boat, and when she asked him to start it, he told her the engine needed repairs. Sargent told Huckabay he had a week to remove it from the water. In April 2025, Sargent received a photograph of the boat “haphazardly secured to an unregistered trailer” on Stock Island, she wrote in her report.
Last July, Sargent found out Huckabay gifted the boat to a friend, who put it back in the water in the same derelict condition, according to her report. The state had to pay to have it removed from the water.
According to Sargent’s report, Huckabay has been the subject of 13 derelict-boat investigations in Monroe County since 2020 and has received 24 boating citations that he has never paid.
“Despite repeated enforcement actions, significant state-funded vessel removals, numerous citations, and the revocation of his registration and titling privileges, Huckabay has continued to possess and operate vessels in violation of Florida’s derelict vessel laws,” Sargent wrote.
Huckabay was released from a Monroe County jail a day after his arrest after posting a $10,000 bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for July 29. He is being represented by the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
