Boating in Miami: Boater ID, Registration, Marina Rates and Bay Rules

Anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1988 who runs a motorboat of 10 horsepower or more on Biscayne Bay or any Miami water needs an FWC Boating Safety Education Identification Card and a photo ID aboard (FWC boater education FAQ).

Florida does not issue a boating license; the FWC card is proof of having passed an approved course and is valid for life (FWC). A new Miami boater who has just finished a course can run the boat for up to 90 days on the course completion certificate plus a photo ID, which the FWC says is not a permanent replacement for the card. The FWC states the card requirement for legally operating a boat anywhere in Florida, so a Miami boater who trailers to the Keys or the Gulf carries the same card (FWC Boater Education).

The FWC lists exemptions that matter on Miami charters and rentals. A person licensed by the U.S. Coast Guard as a master is exempt, and so is an operator accompanied by someone at least 18 years old who holds the card and is responsible for the boat (FWC). A visitor to Miami from another state is exempt with proof of a NASBLA-approved boater safety course or equivalency exam and a photo ID, and a new owner may operate for 90 days after purchase with a qualifying bill of sale aboard.

A Miami boat owner pays Florida a yearly registration fee set by length in section 328.72, from $5.50 for a boat under 12 feet to $189.75 for a vessel of 110 feet or more (Section 328.72, Florida Statutes).

The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles is the agency Chapter 328 names to register and title vessels, so Miami registration is a state matter, not a City of Miami or Miami-Dade Parks one (FLHSMV). The statute sets the fee for each 12-month period by class.

The beacon discount applies to recreational vessels only, and an owner whose discount rests on a personal locator beacon gets it for one vessel. Section 328.72 cuts the registration fee for a recreational vessel equipped with an emergency position-indicating radio beacon, or owned by someone who owns a personal locator beacon; a Class 1 boat in the 16 to 26 foot range drops from $28.75 to $20.40 (Section 328.72).

The City of Miami runs the marinas on its own shoreline, Dinner Key, Miamarina at Bayside and Marine Stadium Marina, while Miami-Dade County Parks runs the county marinas and ramps such as Crandon on Key Biscayne and Black Point (City of Miami Marinas; Miami-Dade Parks).

Inside the city, the Marinas Division of the Department of General Services Administration operates over 1,300 wet slips, dry racks and mooring buoys, and also lists a Watson Island Mooring Field supervisor among its contacts (City of Miami Marinas). Dinner Key takes boats from 30 to 135 feet length overall in transient, seasonal, long-term and liveaboard slips, and its mooring field east of the main marina takes boats up to 50 feet (City of Miami, Dinner Key).

The county ramps are where a Miami trailer boat goes in. Crandon Marina at 4000 Crandon Boulevard has a boat ramp open 24 hours, launch and retrieve rates, and gas and diesel fuel, and it monitors VHF channel 16 with working channel 68; Crandon Park also requires personal paddleboards and kayaks to launch from the marina rather than the beach (Miami-Dade Parks, Crandon). Black Point Marina sits about 4.5 miles west of Intracoastal markers 5 and 6, an area known as the Featherbeds, with 5.5 feet at the dock and 4.9 feet on the approach, which limits deep-draft boats (Miami-Dade Parks, Black Point). Its office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Since November 1, 2025, a transient boat at a City of Miami marina pays $7.00 per foot per day, and a mooring ball for a boat up to 40 feet costs $30.50 a night (City of Miami rates).

Annual space is the hard part. The city says its slips and racks are full, and new tenants come off a waitlist filled by boat size on a first-come, first-serve basis (City of Miami Marinas). Short visits skip the list: a boater wanting transient space at Dinner Key calls 305-329-4755 (City of Miami, Dinner Key). On the rate sheet, transient dockage is offered only at Dinner Key Marina and Miamarina and only during marina operating hours.

Two city pages do not line up on mooring size. The Dinner Key page says its mooring facility accepts vessels up to 50 feet LOA (City of Miami, Dinner Key), while the citywide rate sheet, which does not name a mooring field, prices moorings for vessels 41 to 60 feet (City of Miami Marina Rates); an owner of a boat over 50 feet should confirm with the Dinner Key office before planning on a Miami mooring. The same rate sheet lists work in progress: a new shuttle boat, dinghy dock and pump-out carts at Dinner Key, and new floating docks being designed and permitted at Marine Stadium Marina.

State law bars anchoring from half an hour after sunset to half an hour before sunrise in Sunset Lake and in named stretches of Biscayne Bay between islands, including the water between Palm Island and Watson Island (Section 327.4108, Florida Statutes).

Section 327.4108 calls these grandfathered anchoring limitation areas and describes them as densely populated urban waters with narrow channels, residential docks and heavy recreational traffic (Section 327.4108). The Miami-Dade list covers Biscayne Bay between Palm Island and State Road A1A, Star Island, Hibiscus Island and Watson Island; between Rivo Alto Island and Di Lido Island; between San Marino Island and both Di Lido and San Marco islands; between San Marco Island and Biscayne Island; around the Sunset Islands; and between Sunset Island I and State Road 112.

The ban in these Miami-Dade stretches applies only between the sunset and sunrise times the statute names, and the statute still allows anchoring there after a mechanical failure that poses an unreasonable risk of harm, for up to 3 business days or until the repair, or when weather poses such a risk. The statute does let a county other than Monroe create new anchoring limitation areas, but each must be under 100 acres, cannot include a mooring field or marina, and must be marked with signs and boundary buoys, and all of them together cannot exceed 10 percent of the county navigable waterways (Section 327.4108). The City of Miami lists a Dinner Key Mooring Facility and a Watson Island Mooring Field among its marinas (City of Miami Marinas), with the mooring rates listed above.

Biscayne Bay is a state aquatic preserve (Section 258.397), and running a boat carelessly outside a marked channel so that it scars seagrass there is a noncriminal infraction under Florida law, and each violation is a separate offense (Section 253.04, Florida Statutes).

The Legislature designated Biscayne Bay in Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties, including Card Sound, as the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, with the stated intent that the bay be preserved in an essentially natural condition (Section 258.397, Florida Statutes). The preserve runs from State Road 826 south to State Road 905A in Monroe County and includes the bottom, the water column and publicly owned islands, but it leaves out the submerged lands conveyed to the United States for the Biscayne National Monument, as the statute still names it.

Groundings are one way Miami boats damage seagrass. The National Park Service tells a grounded boater in Biscayne National Park to stop rather than power off, trim the motor up, push or pole off along the route the boat came in, wait for high tide, and call for commercial help on VHF channel 16 (NPS, Biscayne National Park). Powering out of seagrass often pulls sediment into engine cooling systems and blows holes in the meadows, the park says.

Manatee speed and entry zones add another layer. Miami-Dade County notes that the state adopted manatee protection and boating safety rules for Miami-Dade in 1991, with the FWC setting speed and entry limits where manatees need them, and that a sick, injured or dead manatee is reported to the FWC Wildlife Alert line at 1-888-404-3922 (Miami-Dade County). Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the FWC, City of Miami Marinas, Miami-Dade Parks, Florida Statutes and National Park Service websites.