VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — At the Halifax Marina in Daytona Beach, Todd Stebleton has kept his boat there for 15 years.
He showed WFTV a growing problem, that other marinas and residents are also battling along Central Florida's coast.
It's called Brown Roy or Korean Fungus and over the past year, it worked it's way north from south Florida.
"It's a maintenance issue that needs to be considered and unfortunately, because it's so new, it hasn't been budgeted," explained Stebleton.
Experts say it looks like a water line on a dock piling, but the discoloration is from the wood deteriorating. The fungus has been found on old and new wood.
Eyewitness News received a picture of what the fungus did to a south Florida man's dock. The wood his boat was mounted on was eaten away to the point of where it cracked, costing him more than $2,000 in repairs.
At Halifax, Stebleton says the problem may have been caught by the dock master early enough to something about it; but it makes the cost of doing business on the coast much more expensive.
"It's just another expense. Those expenses are eventually going to be passed down to the boaters and it's going to cost more for all of us to be on the water," said Stebleton.
WFTV
