RedactedNarrative: On March 30, 2022, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) was on routine patrol in Hillsborough County. I was in uniform and operating a marked patrol vehicle.
  While investigating a separate boating accident I was at Bullfrog Creek Marine in Gibsonton. While there I was advised by an employee of another possible boating accident. OP1 advised that on February 27th, he had run into an underwater object in the vicinity of Alafia Banks Critical Wildlife Area. He stated that he had sustained an estimated $5,000 to his vessel and motor. He agreed to meet with me and allow me to inspect his vessel.
  His description of the location of the accident, was consistent with the location of four other boating accidents that had been investigated by FWC over the previous month and a half. All involving a dredge line from a nearby dredging project. I had been to the area to investigate the site on February 24, 2022, and had found the dredge pipeline to possibly be outside of permit regulations as far as safety regulations required under their permit. The site had been put on Safety shutdown by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) on February 25, 2022 due to violations of safety requirements involving securing the pipeline and marking of the pipeline. I had conducted a second site visit with a USACE representative on February 30, 2022. At which point the area was still out of safety compliance to USACE regulations. The accident occurred between these two dates.
  On March 31, 2022 I met OP1 at his home. I inspected and photographed the vessel, a white 24 foot Hydrasport. I observed damage to the ridge on the underside of the hull towards the bow, as well as damage to the port side outboard motor, which had been torn away from its mounting bracket. The skag of the damaged motor had a dark plastic material embedded into a bur in the metal. This was consistent with the High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) material the dredge pipe was made out of.
  During my interview with OP1 I was informed of the following. OP1 was returning from the MacDill Airforce Base air show with his wife and daughter. He was headed north bound and was beginning to turn to the east to enter the Alafia River channel, when they heard the motor make a noise that drew their attention. They noticed the vessel had sustained damage to the port side motor. He was unaware of what he had struck. He stated that they had seen some buoys but the area he was traversing was not marked. He also stated it was the same path he often takes through the area. 
  I inspected and photographed his GPS which identified the potential impact area being in the vicinity of N27 50.909, W82 25.205. This was also consistent with the area identified by myself and the USACE as an area where the pipe was improperly secured to the ground, and was not marked to USACE regulations laid out in EM385_1_1.
  Summary-
  While it is unknown what the vessel struck, the material transfer on the skag, location of the vessel at the time of the damage, and non-compliance of the dredge pipeline in that area create a high probability of the damage occurring during an allision with a submerged or partially submerged dredge pipeline.
  