12/02/2025
Some laws you should not follow. I would encourage civil disobedience here, including ripping these signs out if you see them on your beaches. We just paid in Pinellas County for beach renourishment. We own these beaches.
Florida’s 2025 Beach Enforcement Runs on 42-Year-Old Tide Math
Did you know the line that decides where private property ends and the public beach begins is still based on measurements from a tidal study that ended in 2001?
Yep — Florida’s Mean High Water Line (MHWL) is running on a 19-year average from the 1983–2001 epoch. That means today’s beach enforcement is using data that started 42 years ago and ended 24 years ago… long before sea-level rise, major storms, modern erosion, and pretty much everything shaping our coastline today.
Meanwhile, the updated tidal epoch (2002–2020) won’t be released until 2026. So the “official line” being used in trespass claims, surveys, code enforcement, and beach disputes doesn’t reflect the coastline we’re all standing on.
What is the MHWL?
It’s the legal boundary used to determine:
• public vs. private beach
• where local governments can regulate
• where the public can walk, fish, or sit
• how far enforcement can go when claiming “trespass”
In short: it’s the legal backbone of your beach rights.
So why does it matter?
Because right now people are being:
• threatened with trespassing
• pushed off beaches
• warned they’re “on private property”
• confronted or cited
…all based on a tidal line from the early ‘80s.
Florida’s coastline has changed.
Florida’s enforcement line has not.
When the new numbers drop in 2026, they’ll reshape the entire conversation about beach access, boundaries, and what “public beach” actually means in Walton County — where every grain of sand feels like it’s up for debate.