Surfcasters attention! Push to ban jetty fishing!
This came from another site. Don't know the guy who started the thread, Sudsy, but someone said he is pretty famous on the internet for publicizing this info. I think it's cool that at least a few people are getting involved, before we have no places left to fish at all. Hope it's ok to post here? I'm going to start calling tomorrow, and if you guys here could start calling, that would be cool.

I poster this in the NY reports because I thought you guys could help us as well by making some calls. I read that post about shoreham the other day, and did my part, made the call to Mrs Bonner's office. So please help us out, thanks!



Long Branch, Avalon, and a few other towns in NJ are at this moment making a concerted push to keep people off the jetties 24/7 as a matter of "Public Health and Safety." There's going to be a meeting this coming Wednesday, July 16, at Lisa Jackson’s office. Lisa is the head of the NJ Dept of Environmental Protection (DEP, the people who take the lead in beach access issues in NJ). The meeting is going to be between the lawyers for the towns and the DEP.

According to DEP rules, the public cannot be denied access to the water, including the jetties except when there's an exigent (exceptional) reason. The towns are using "Public Health and Safety," a buzz term in government, claiming that jetty rocks are slippery and sharp as their exigent reason. They are probably going to use as an excuse the cost of defending injury lawsuits even though they are not legally liable.

The way I see it, this smells suspiciously like Long Branch’s way of using the back door to legislate us off Elberon’s side roads. This is something they are trying to do now with parking regulations. These new parking regulations are probably against the DEP rules, forcing the town to try this angle. I’m not familiar with the other towns’ reasons as they are south of LBI and outside of the area with which I’m familiar.

What we have to do is barrage Lisa Jackson’s office with calls and e-mails letting her know how important access to the jetties is to us. Please be courteous and keep in mind that Lisa and the DEP are on our side. Lisa’s husband surf fishes (though probably not as hardcore as most of us). It's important that the DEP understands how many of us use the jetties and that we are extremely serious about protecting our 24/7 access to them.

For you out-of-state people, please mention the amount of money you spend in NJ on tackle, meals, and lodging and that you will be bringing that money elsewhere if you are denied jetty access.

lisa.jackson@dep.state.nj.us

Lisa.Jackson
Office of the Commissioner
401 E. State St.
7th Floor, East Wing
P.O. Box 402
Trenton, NJ 08625-0402

phone: 609-292-2885
fax: 609-292-7695