Stop Sea Piracy

Maritime salvage and towing companies provide a valuable service for boaters in Florida, but federal maritime laws place few restrictions on what they can charge boaters for salvage services. In a state with almost 1 million registered vessels, Florida was experiencing a problem with price gouging by these companies.

Sachs Media was engaged to shed light on this issue and promote legislation that would bring necessary price transparency to Florida boaters. To raise awareness, we created the Stop Sea Piracy campaign. With an engaging social media campaign and website and ads on print, digital, broadcast, and other channels, we made the case to Florida lawmakers that this was a problem that needed their attention.

Reform legislation had momentum and was overwhelmingly approved by the Florida House, but the issue was unexpectedly eclipsed by the tragic Parkland school shooting, which consumed legislative attention for the remainder of the legislative session. Nonetheless, our efforts did prompt enhanced policies by vessel towing companies.