By DONALD WITTKOWSKI
Sea Isle City is ending its short-lived ban on shark fishing. But there’s a catch.
To avoid possible conflicts with swimming or surfing off the beaches, there will be restrictions placed on shark fishing during the busy summer tourism season from May 15 to Sept. 15, City Solicitor Paul Baldini said.
Between the hours of 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. during the summer season, anglers will only be allowed to fish by casting their lines in the water, according to Baldini.
They will be prohibited from using any “extraordinary measures” such as drones or kayaks to help them catch sharks, City Business Administrator George Savastano said.
The city imposed a complete ban on shark fishing off its beaches on Aug. 8 following complaints that drones and other questionable methods were being used to spot some of the big predators swimming offshore and to haul them out of the surf.
“It never came to a head with any issues until the drones,” Savastano said of the city’s decision then to halt shark fishing.
Under the ban, all shark fishing had been prohibited on or near the beaches and within 600 feet of Sea Isle’s shoreline. Violators risked fines as high as $1,250 in municipal court when the ban was in effect.
The prohibition included shore-based shark fishing by chumming or blood-baiting, the use of unmanned drones or with the assistance of kayaks or any other water vessel.
City Council President Mary Tighe said she has no objections about surf fishing, but called it “cheating” when anglers use chum or drones to try to catch sharks.
“We’re against the cheating part of it,” she said in an interview in August.
Bringing a slew of attention and news coverage to Sea Isle, photos and video circulated on social media over the summer showing sharks being caught off the beach or cruising around not too far offshore.
Some of the photos showed what apparently were large sand tiger sharks being caught in Sea Isle. Sand tigers have fearsome looking teeth but are generally known to be of little or no threat to humans.
In June, a group of fishermen posted video of what was believed to be an 8-foot to 12-foot great white shark that they spotted while in a boat about one mile off Sea Isle. They saw the shark while approaching Townsends Inlet, a deep channel connecting the bay and ocean between Sea Isle and Avalon.
Amid fears that the use of drones or blood-baiting could lure aggressive sharks close to the beach near swimmers or surfers, the city responded with the ban in August. Later, city officials set up a series of meetings with surfing and fishing representatives to work out a compromise.
“All that we asked of the surfing and fishing communities was to be courteous to each other. They all compromised,” Baldini said in an interview.
Local fishermen had urged Sea Isle officials to repeal the ban on shark fishing, saying they feared it would lead to a broader backlash of other beach communities at the Jersey Shore taking similar action.
Appearing at a City Council meeting in August, the fishermen said they fully agreed with Sea Isle’s efforts to protect the safety of swimmers and surfers, but argued that a complete ban on catching sharks from the beaches was excessive.
The fishermen who appeared at the Council meeting stressed that they don’t keep the sharks that they catch. They said it is just as fun releasing the sharks as it is catching them in the surf.
In a statement, Mayor Leonard Desiderio said the meetings with surfing and fishing representatives were a “great example of how folks with different interests were able to recognize and respect each other’s point of view, and ultimately come to agreement on a solution.”
“We will be implementing beach regulations that continue to provide opportunities for surf fishing on designated beaches during the day, which are mindful and respectful of the bathing and surfing public. There will also be the ability to fish in the evening, nighttime, and early morning hours,” Desiderio said.
During the summer season, there are designated beaches for swimming, surfing, kayaking, paddleboarding and fishing. They are listed on the Sea Isle City Beach Patrol’s website at sicbp.com/BeachInfo.
In the meantime, there are no restrictions on shark fishing off Sea Isle’s beaches during the quiet off-season months, Baldini said.
Baldini explained that Sea Isle’s primary focus was to protect the public, not the sharks, when it imposed the ban. He said there are federal regulations that have been enacted to protect sharks from overfishing.
