 Re: Looking for Contributors
My story starts two weeks ago when I decided to try fishing at New Smyrna Beach. I had not been there for several years and I wanted to see the Canaveral National Seashore Park for the first time. I stopped at the New Smyrna Beach Area Visitors Bureau Welcome Center to get some information about the area. A nice lady working there gave me a map and several brochures about the turtle mounds and some of the things I could to do at the park. She told me about a public beach located just before the Canaveral National Seashore Park that had a picnic area, bath rooms and a lifeguard. It was also a good place to go fishing and she gave me directions to a bait shop about a block away from the public beach. I drove over to the Canaveral National Seashore Park, but did not see the bait shop. The Canaveral National Seashore Park was open, but no one was manning the gate house where you paid the entrance fee. I waited a couple of minutes for the guard to appear and when no one came I entered the park. The Canaveral National Seashore Park was typical with a two lane road and lots of the plants you see in the Florida wild and a large gopher tortoise that was munching on a piece of crab grass. There were several parking lots located along the road where you had access to the beach. Most of these were nearly empty of cars until I reached the end where the park had a final parking area. This one was packed. Every space was taken and signs warned that parking was limited to the spaces only and that violators would be towed. I figured this must be the spot for great fishing, but I could not stop to see because I did not want to get a ticket.
I left the Canaveral National Seashore Park, found the bait shop and proceeded to the public beach I was told about. I found a parking space right next to the lifeguard tower. I unloaded all my gear and set up on the beach. The water was calm and I waded out several yards to a sand bar and began fishing and before I knew it, I had caught a small blacktip shark and took him to shore to pull the hook out with my pliers. The kids swimming around me came over to see the shark. I told the kids it was a baby great white shark, but the older kids didn’t believe me. I got the shark loose and let the kids touch him before I let him go. One of the sharks I caught was a three foot bonnethead shark that had my pole bent way over. I was in waist deep water and two older kids came over to watch me bring in the shark, but it snapped my line when it was right next to me. Its large head came out of the water and the kids thought it was a hammerhead shark.
I had a great time catching sharks and teasing the kids about the sharks grabbing their toes, but rain clouds appeared out of the north and it was way passed lunch time. I headed to the Breakers beach front restaurant for one of their great cheeseburgers and a cold draft beer. I had a patio seat near an open window and could watch the storm passing through. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
The following takes place between the hours of 10 am and 3 pm, 27 July 2007.
Every other Thursday is my day to fish because that’s when our house cleaner comes and I want to be out of the way. I decided to try fishing at New Smyrna Beach again and maybe catch some more sharks. My trip two weeks earlier was a lot of fun and it was a nice day for the beach. I stopped, got live shrimp at the bait store and went back to the public beach for some fishing. I arrived before the lifeguard was on duty and again parked in the same spot by the lifeguard tower. I hauled all my gear down to the beach and setup. I ate a sausage and egg biscuit and drank a large black coffee while I enjoyed the ocean relaxing in my camp chair under my beach umbrella. I had my cooler, shrimp bucket, fishing poles, sun tan lotion and all the things necessary for a fun day at the beach.
I threw out a line and began fishing in peace and quiet, but before I knew it, a hundred kids come out of no where and swarmed around me. It was the YMCA summer camp kids wearing their red tee-shirts. The Y people in charge were trying to keep the kids away from my fishing spot, but it was a hopeless cause. I reeled in my line and headed down the beach and into the water with my trusty fishing pole. I waded out into the deep water and fished on a sand bar but the waves were too strong and I kept losing my swimming pants and temporally lost my sun glasses. I was finally worn out in the water and went back to my beach chair and umbrella to rest.
The Y kids were all over the place so I read the newspaper and drank my bottled water. The next thing I knew the lifeguard was blowing his whistle and pointing his flag at the spot where I had been fishing in the deep water. Two swimmers were in trouble and the lifeguard ran to the rescue. Another lifeguard came out of nowhere and was in the water already using his float to bring in the swimmers. It turns out that the two swimmers were part of the Y group and they had gotten caught in a rip tide current. One of the swimmers was a middle age lady not in great shape and she sat down on the sand near me and looked exhausted. I was going to ask where they were from since I was giving money to the summer program at the Y near my home, but she was surrounded by the Y kids asking her what happened.
I went over to the lifeguard to find out about the rip current. The lifeguard was there with the other lifeguard involved in the rescue of the two ladies and a guy I thought was their boss. I later found out his name was Mike. I asked about the rip current and Mike said I was near it when I was fishing before but since I was on a sand bar I was not in danger. I told him the water looked funny where I was fishing and there was sometimes a strong under tow. I guess their policy is to wait until I get pulled out to sea before telling me about the ripe current.
I knew the Y kids had to eat sometime and it was getting near lunch time. Finally they were rounded up and went to the picnic grounds to eat. I had my chance to fish again, but my troubles were only beginning. I was standing in the surf near the lifeguard tower in a safe three inches of water when a woman walks up to me and asks for a favor. I will call her tattoo lady (TL). She had to be somewhere between 30 and 40 years old and looked like she had seen better days. I thought she might be looking for some spare change, but instead she asked me to move down the beach from where I was fishing because her kid was cut on my fishing hook. The beach on the other side of her was nearly empty of people and I told her I was sorry, but I was here first and she could move. I did not really believe her kid was hurt and I was sure I would have felt something that big on my hook. I don’t recall the lifeguard rendering first aid to any of her kids or the Y kids for that matter. TL said her child might be hurt if I continue fishing where I was and I said I don’t care. She called me an AH and I said then she must be Mrs. AH which didn’t sound right because we were not married. My mother always told me that people always respect the space of the fisherman and will not interfere with the right to fish in peace. This right goes back generations in my family and cannot be limited by TL.
It turns out that TL had several kids with her and a young guy that might be a boyfriend or second husband. I was taking a break from fishing when the boyfriend and kids started walking in the water in front of another fisherman near me. I later found out the fisherman’s name is James. I decided to warn James to be careful fishing near those people because of the earlier fish hook incident I had with them. James felt the same as me and said we were here first. Things were going pretty good and we got to see some more people being saved from the rip current in the same spot it was before.
James and his wife Margaret were catching fish left and right. The fish were small whiting, but James had enough to feed a crowd. It turns out that James is from the same town as me and that he had family visiting. There were close to a dozen of them including granny who was 90. They were all taking turns fishing and having a good time.
Fishing next to James was another large family that was visiting from New York.
The Y kids are straggling back to the beach from their lunch and are lined up in squads by their adult leaders and warned to respect the fisherman’s space by staying south of my fishing line in the water and my camp chair and umbrella on the beach. This is good for me but not good for TL and her family because the Y kids are all over her area like baby sea turtles digging in the sand. While taking a break from my fishing, I get a cold bottle of water from my cooler and am having a long slug when TL and her family walk by me apparently leaving for the day. TL is saying something to me that I cannot hear and her boyfriend is giving me a dirty look so I don’t think TL is telling me to have a nice day. I don’t see any of her kids limping or bleeding and I am glad I can fish without having to worry about further hook injuries to TL and her family.
The story now takes a nasty turn. A young women comes up to me and I assume she is with the Y kids because they are all back on the beach. She turns out to be a new lifeguard just starting her shift on our beach and she tells me a complaint was made regarding the fish hook incident with TL and her family and that an officer was here to talk to me. The previous lifeguard was not involved so I guess the complaint made its way from lifeguard headquarters. She warned me about the fishing and I gave her my opinion on that matter and she wanted me to come with her to talk with the officer. I told her to have the officer come down to me where I was fishing on the beach. I think she reported to the officer that I had a bad attitude.
The officer came down to the beach and it was my buddy Mike who had earlier been watching me fish in the ripe current. I didn’t notice before, but Mike is wearing a 9MM automatic on his hip and has different police gear handing from his wide black belt. Mike tells me I was in violation of a county public safety ordinance that I must remain 50 feet away from swimmers when I am fishing. Mike said a bather had been injured with a fishing hook and a complaint had been filed. I asked Mike if he saw the injury and he admitted he had not. TL and her family had already left for the day so the hook wound evidence was not available. Apparently the swimmers have the right of way on a “Swimming Beach” and the 50 feet rule must be obeyed. Mike told me I could see a copy of the ordinance, but he would have to write me a ticket to go with it. I asked Mike if he had a measuring tape so I could mark the beach around me. Mike left to get the tape measure. In the mean time I asked James about the 50 feet rule and he said there should be a sign posted about it. I had not thought about that but there certainly should be a sign. Mike returned without the measuring tape and confessed he had left it somewhere else. James and I asked Mike about posting a sign and he said that there were too many ordinances to list them all on a sign. Mike said we should access our home computers and read all the ordinances before we come to the beach. James told Mike he did not own a computer and Mike said to call on the phone. This would be a long distance call for James and might take a long time to cover all the ordinances. I asked Mike why the lifeguards don’t mention the 50 feet rule when we walk by his guard tower. Mike said that is not their job to tell people about the rule.
This is beginning to look like a catch 22 situation where you have to know about the rule so that you can ask the lifeguard about it and if you don’t know to ask about the rule the lifeguard can not tell you because you didn’t ask him. I asked Mike how can I measure the fifty feet and he told me to walk it off with my feet. I told him we had different sized feet and he became agitated and told me he cannot spend anymore time on this.
I am glad I remained on the beach with Mike where there were many witnesses and Mike would be less likely to escalate the situation. James and his family are black and I think that saved me from being hauled off in cuffs to Mike’s waiting squad car. I could see in my head all of us on Larry King with Al Sharpton, who would be protecting our rights to fish without being harassed by trigger happy beach cops looking to put the poor fisherman down. The large family from New York is Hispanic and that probably helped my cause as well but they didn’t want to take part in our discussions with Mike. James asked Mike if we had to move every time a swimmer came near and Mike told us that was the case. Mike left without further clarifying the details of the 50 feet rule. I didn’t know if the fifty feet should be measured from the fisherman or the hook. Most of the time the hook is over 50 feet away from a swimmer, but I am standing maybe 40 or 45 feet from the swimmer.
I decided to risk fishing after moving down the beach and notifying all families near us about the 50 feet rule and they told me that they were not going swimming. James and Margaret resume catching fish but I am not getting any sharks. We are crammed together on the beach and granny keeps hooking my line thinking she has a large fish. She has reeled in her line and is looking for the fish when I walk up to her and pull my line off her hook. I don’t think she can see too well. James is fishing on the other side of granny and is close to a swimmer. I also have a swimmer near me. We are eyeballing the distance and appear to be in compliance with the 50 feet rule.
A short time later I notice that James is talking with a new officer, Elmer. Elmer is telling James that the 50 feet rule is no longer an ordinance, but has been replaced with a new rule that lets the lifeguard determine if fishing should be allowed. I think someone at lifeguard headquarters actually looked up the ordinance and briefed Elmer on how to handle the situation. Elmer has decided that we can no longer fish on the public beach because of the ocean currents and that people around us are being prevented from swimming. Margaret, James’s wife, comes over and explains that the two families Elmer is concerned about are hers and the people from New York are fishing but not swimming. Crowd control on the Y kids was keeping them down the beach from us so they were not an issue. I asked Elmer for a copy of the ordinance because I remembered that Mike would only give me a copy if he wrote me a ticket. I wanted to make sure Elmer was on sound legal ground and Elmer said that he would give me a copy. Elmer said we had to move farther down the beach to the end of a fishing wall. By this time granny has had enough and tells Elmer she is over 90 years old and can’t walk that far. Elmer tells James to drive to another beach or fish in the river. I still have my fishing line in the water and Elmer tells me to remove my line NOW. Elmer like Mike is packing major heat so we all begin to gather our fishing gear. Elmer appears satisfied and heads over to the lifeguard tower where the new lifeguard is on duty. I give James my remaining shrimp and hike back to my camp chair and beach umbrella.
Before leaving I tell Margaret that I should have fished at the Canaveral National Seashore Park where it was quiet and there were no lifeguards. Margaret said they fished there the last time they visited the area and found out it’s a nude beach and she didn’t want her family exposed to that. Now I know why the parking lot was full on my previous visit. I remembered another part of the Canaveral National Seashore Park was located nearby and I think it is in the next county and they had signs warning that nudity was not allowed. I heard years before that it was not against federal law to go nude on federal property, but there are no lifeguards for the nude bathers to ask about the ordinances.
As I carry my gear back to my SUV, Elmer is beside the lifeguard tower checking on my departure. James is nearby and we ask Elmer to consider putting a sign out about the fishing rule. He said that there were too many rules to list. I tell him that a rule this important should be on a sign because it affects both the fisherman and the safety of the swimmers. Elmer wishes me a safe trip home but forgets to give me a copy of the ordinance. I guess I can find it on the county web site.
I have learned two important things about fishing on the public beach. Ask the lifeguard if fishing is allowed and ask where the ripe current is. Also it would be a good idea to find out where the Y kids will be swimming.
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Beach rules
Here are some ways you can make the beach safe and enjoyable for everyone. Please:
• Always swim directly in front of a Lifeguard.
• The 10 mph speed limit is strictly enforced. Violators will be fined $41 and up.
• Alcohol and glass containers are not allowed.
• Pets are not allowed on the beach except guide dogs accompanying visually impaired persons or hearing ear dogs accompanying hearing impaired persons.
• Music or noise which can be heard from more than 50 feet of the source is illegal.
• It is illegal to disturb dune vegetation.
• Driving or parking in the conservation zone is prohibited.
• Personal watercraft operators must stay in the proper zones and wear a helmet at all times.
Please help us protect the beach environment
• Don't disturb a turtle that is crawling to or from the ocean or laying eggs. Watch from a distance.
• Avoid shining lights on the beach at night as this may frighten away nesting females and interfere with the baby turtles' ability to find the sea.
• Avoid walking or cycling in places posted as nesting areas.
• Immediately report any injured or dead sea turtle to the nearest Volusia County Beach Safety employee.
• Do not disturb markers or protective screening over turtle nests. These nests are being studied and protected.
• Avoid walking on the dunes along the beach.
• Don't disturb nesting sea birds
• Don't litter. Cigarette butts, fishing line and other trash can harm the animals and birds along the beach.
• Do your part to spread the word about environment-friendly habits on the beach.
SECTION 9: Section 82-47 of The Code of Ordinances of the County of Volusia is created to read as follows: SECTION 82-47. Swimming.
Swimming shall be at his/her own risk.
SECTION 10: Section 82-48 of The Code of Ordinances of the County of Volusia is created to read as follows: SECTION 82-48. Hunting, Trapping, and Fishing
Recreational fishing is allowed on Conservation lands, except
where specifically restricted by signs.
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