Salt Water Anglers of Bergen County, New Jersey

 2025 Fishing Regulations for Fluke, Sea Bass and Porgies

Fluke – 3 Fluke at 18 inches or greater with the season starting May 4th and ending on September 25th.

Sea Bass – The regulation for sea bass remains the same as last year – 12. 5 inches for all seasons – 5/17 - 6/19 (10 fish), 7/1 - 8/31 (1 fish), 10/1 - 10/31 (10 fish), 11/1-12/31 (15 fish).

Porgies/Scup – 10 inch minimum size for seasons January 1st to June 30th and September 1st until December 31st.

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Update on whether surfers and anglers will be required to buy a beach badge

By John Toth

Background:

During August of last year in Belmar, police patrols were increased due to people avoiding to purchase a beach badge to use the beach. A California surfer, Liam Mahoney, was on his way to surf with his wet suit and surf board. He was asked by police to show his beach badge. His beach badge was on his equipment, but for some reason known only to him, he walked away from the police without indicating that he had the badge. Not responding to questions by police and walking away from them is a crime and police charged him with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstruction of justice that left him in the sand with handcuffs.

During the arrest, a woman, later identified as Liam’s sister shouted at police “Why are you arresting him, his badge is right here.” A video taken by a beachgoer that day showing only the latter part of the incident between Mahoney and the police was widely distributed. The Belmar police were strongly criticized for using excessive force in their confrontation with Mahoney. The video prompted a petition drive on change.org to “decriminalize beach access,” which garnered more than 1,400 signatures in three days.

On learning about this incident, Assemblywoman Maggie Donlon (D Monmouth), who is also an avid surfer for over two decades, introduced a bill A 4816 to the legislature to address this issue. This bill would prohibit a municipality from requiring a municipal beach badge or admission pass for access to the wet sandy beach below the mean high tide for a surfer or angler for the exclusive purpose of surfing or fishing.

Update:

On June 3rd, Liam Mahoney, 29, took a plea deal in Belmar’s municipal court and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice and resisting arrest as well as the beach badge ordinance. His fines and court costs for all the offenses, including the beach badge ordinance, totaled $1,410. If Mahoney successfully completes a year of probation, the disorderly person offenses will be dismissed.

I am not sure that this is the final chapter of this story. The video of his arrest stirred a lot of anger, especially in the angler and the surfer communities who resent paying a fee to go surfing and fishing on the beach. Having a beach badge is not the only issue surfers and anglers have to contend with since a number of municipalities prevent the public from accessing their beaches by restricting the number of available parking spaces. Also, some beach residents illegally place “no fishing signs’ or place obstructions with fences to prevent access to their nearby beaches.

Assemblywoman Donlon’s bill to oppose beach badges for surfers and anglers will be strongly opposed by the League of Municipalities. They will not support any bill that would reduce or eliminate revenues derived from their sale of beach badges.

Perhaps Assemblywoman Donlon will receive some support for her bill by the results of a recent poll conducted by Stockton University’s Hughes Center for Public Policy conducted during June 18th to the 25th with 606 residents. This poll showed that the majority of New Jersey residents think that the state’s beaches should be free, and that half of the respondents believe that beach badges cost too much. Statewide, 65% of survey participants “think that beaches are a public resource, and that they should be free to New Jersey residents. Interestingly, Atlantic City and Wildwood are two locations along our shore that do not require beach badges for public access to their beaches.

When this incident occurred in Belmar and went on video showing police handcuffing Mahoney while he was lying in the sand, there was a lot of public outcry and anger over his arrest. While it seems that this should all be over with Mahoney paying his fine in court, I do think that it will not go away so easily since resentment is still there especially with the surfing community over their access to use a public beach without a beach badge.

I will keep you posted with any new developments to this beach badge story  

(Asbury Park Press, July 5th)