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Environment
Voices of Lake Okeechobee
Meet a farmer, an activist, an environmentalist, the fish finders, the immigrants and the berm buster, the people who are at odds.
Living off the Lake
 "Let’s face it. Fishing is what brings people here. It’s not water-skiing. It’s not parasailing. This is not a water recreation lake. It’s too shallow. There’s too many predators." — Mary Ann Martin Owner, Roland and Mary Ann Martin’s Marina & Resort [Photo: Jeffrey Camp] |
During the drought, Mary Ann Martin had to stop renting out boats from her Clewiston marina. As lake levels fell, borrowers were losing propellers on rocks. Sales at her gift shop fell. Food and beverage sales were off. High fuel prices should have been good for her — boat owners need gas as they take the cross-Florida Okeechobee Waterway past her door. But low water closed the route in March. On a May day, a rabbit darts dry-footed from one high-and-dry floating dock to another in a basin that should be 10 feet deep.
Some of her business lines are down 80%, Martin says. Then she adds, “Trust me, this is the best thing to happen to the lake.”
Martin owns Roland and Mary Ann Martin’s Marina & Resort just outside the dike. Walls hold pictures of VIPs like basketball legend Larry Bird and U.S. Rep. Dennis Hastert, R-Illinois, the former House Speaker. Not many people, famous or otherwise, visit this day. She claps for the lone customer in sight. A few days before, the lake had broken the record low level set during the 2001 drought. Martin still pays on a loan she took to help her through that dry spell. Hurricane Wilma in 2005 did $2 million in damage.
An Oklahoma native and accomplished angler — the first woman on the cover of Field and Stream, she says proudly — Martin first saw the lake in 1971, just after marrying champion fisherman Roland Martin. It was love at first sight. With smiling eyes, she recalls the clarity of the water and the startling sight of men fishing for redear sunfish, their poles bent as they fought to land the feisty shellcrackers. It’s her favorite fishing now, “bar none.”
 HIGH AND DRY The lake sank to record low levels this year, cutting deeply into Mary Ann Martin’s revenue. But she says the drought “is the best thing to happen to the lake.” [Photo: Mike Theiss] |
water cleared up and the fish came back in numbers.
That’s why the drought will prove to be a blessing, she says. “As the water comes up, so does my business.”
