The U.S. Coast Guard has begun the task of completely removing channel markers in local waterways in spite of entreaties by residents and county officials to continue to maintain the critical aids to navigation.

Some markers in Hole in the Wall were removed beginning Oct. 4, while the removal of Davis Creek markers began last weekend.

Waterman Waynie Hudgins of Bavon was shocked when he got a call on Sunday telling him that a hired crew out of Panama City, Florida, was taking down the channel markers in Davis Creek. He hurried to the nearby public dock on Davis Creek and saw the crew for himself. He watched as they threw off a fish hawk’s nest, and a diver and two other crew members sawed down the marker, then tied the poles to the public dock, where they were still floating Monday morning.

With the aids to navigation gone, Hudgins said he’ll have a tough time finding his way in and out of the creek. Even though he’s intimately familiar with the local waterways, ...