RedactedNarrative: On Wednesday May 23, 2018, I, the Officer of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was on state water patrol in Hillsborough County, Florida. I received a call from the FWC Dispatch Center of a boating accident on Egmont Key in regards to two vessels that collided at the marina. I made contact with operator 1 met him on his vessel near Demens Landing Park and identified his vessel. I asked operator 1 what happened and he stated to me that he was anchored in Egmont Key trying to catch bait. Operator 1 stated a Park Ranger was trying to launch his boat from the boat lift. According to operator 1, the Park Ranger told him that he was going to back off the lift and that he needed to move his anchored vessel. Operator 1 complied with the Park Ranger, pulled his anchor and moved his vessel out of the way of the boat lift near a large pilot boat.
  
  The LT. also with FWC interviewed the operator of the Park Ranger vessel Operator 2. According to Operator 2 he told Operator 1 that he needed to move his vessel so that he could drive his vessel off the lift. Operator 1 stated that Operator 2 complied and moved out of the way of the Park Ranger vessel. As Operator 2 was backing off the lift he split the throttles of his engines to spin the vessel around. According to Operator 2 as he was doing so the strong current that day started to push the two vessel together. Operator 2 stated that he tried an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision. However, there was not enough room in the marina to avoid the two vessels hitting each other. Operator 2 stated that operator 1 did not try and move the vessel out of the way.   
  
  I spoke with operator 2 on Wednesday May 30, 2018. He confirmed his side of the story that he instructed Operator 1 to move his vessel and that as he was backing up the current pushed the two vessel into each other. Operator 2 also confirmed that he tried to move his vessel out of the way but there was not enough room or time to do so.
  
  After my investigation I have come to the following conclusions:
  
  -Operator 1 was at anchor at the time Operator 2 told him to move his vessel.
  
  -Operator 1 complied with Operator 2's direction to move out of the way of the boat lift.
  
  -Operator 1 moved his vessel a short distance away from the boat lift near the pilot boat.
  
  -Operator 2's vision was obstructed from the small marina and congested waters.
  
  -Operator 2 tried an evasive maneuver to avoid a collision.
  
  -Operator 1 did not move his vessel far enough away from the boat lift to give Operator 2 enough room to back off the lift. Also, he did not try and avoid the collision with the other vessel.
  
  -Both men failed to keep a proper lookout in regards to what the other vessel was doing.
  
  -The current that day was strong and played a role in the accident.
  
  Due to the fact that both parties have some fault in this accident neither one has been cited.
  
  End of report.
  