BHB on Undercurrent

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Of course the boat trailer parking is also a 24 hour permit. Apples to oranges.
 
Maybe because they take up more space.

True, and they also pay an annual boat registration fee which is supposed to help cover ramps and parking. Yet the county removes parking, allows the county cops to take up a bunch of space and .....

I could easily see them now deciding that they must reduce the areas that people can dive - particularly around the fishing pier... since apparently sooo many DIVERS have made it abundantly clear that the two groups can't "play nice" and more regulations and intervention is required to "protect" us.

On a side note, getting a fish hook through the skin is quite uncomfortable (not sure how many times I have done that) but it is hardly a life threatening situation if you have a sharp knife handy. I actually see a good bit of humor in divers claiming that some idiot, drunk fisherman is trying to kill them with a 4 ounce sinker and hook, yet argue that baited scuba dives with bull sharks is an entirely reasonable recreational pursuit and that the inherent risks are miniscule and definitely "worth it".
 
Of course the boat trailer parking is also a 24 hour permit. Apples to oranges.

Annual permits and daily parking fees are available
 
I actually see a good bit of humor in divers claiming that some idiot, drunk fisherman is trying to kill them with a 4 ounce sinker and hook, yet argue that baited scuba dives with bull sharks is an entirely reasonable recreational pursuit and that the inherent risks are miniscule and definitely "worth it".

Then you aware of Abernathy being a purveyor of said baited scuba dives and the unfortunate demise of more than one of his customers? Abernathy has no business speaking for anybody but himself, instead he holds himself out as some kind of representative of the diving community, what a joke(IMHO). Talk about a guy that lives in a glass boat throwing around five pound lead weights.

I could easily see them now deciding that they must reduce the areas that people can dive - particularly around the fishing pier... since apparently sooo many DIVERS have made it abundantly clear that the two groups can't "play nice" and more regulations and intervention is required to "protect" us.

Yeah, I can see it coming now, no diving on the west side of the park near the fishing pier. Less people dive that side than the east side, in doing so it relieves some of crowdedness of the east side. Personally I prefer the west side because I can swim a whole ten yards without seeing another diver. Maybe anybody that dives the east side far more often might want to contemplate just how many individuals will be under the water on the east side before supporting a measure to ban fisherman from a bridge they have been using for I don't know, fifty years at least> (IMHO) Because, FWC would never ever possibly be able to catch a malicious fisherman trying to snag a diver (sarcasm utterly intended).

I had a lot of respect for the reports that come from Undercurrent, not anymore.
 
I've found lots of cool fish & critters in, around, and under those shopping carts. Not condoning nor criticizing, just stating a real world observation.

Yeah, they’re little artificial reefs. Sea creatures don’t have human esthetic. I cringe at “ Harbor Clean Ups” because of all the little critters wiped out.
 
Yeah, they’re little artificial reefs. Sea creatures don’t have human esthetic. I cringe at “ Harbor Clean Ups” because of all the little critters wiped out.

You should know then, that the area known as the Blue Heron Bridge was created by Harbor development! The entire Lake Worth Lagoon was a fresh water lake until the inlets were created, changing it to a salt water ecosystem. And providing the habitat that currently exists.
 
I only read the first 13 pages that so I apologize if I missed a bit in the end.I want to make sure that I understand the history of the fight between fisherman and divers at the Blue heron bridge. Sounds like this is something that has been ongoing. It also sounds like something that FDOT Has every right to regulate. FDOT Did just that by putting signs up on the East bridge pedestrian area, not the west Bridge which maintained fishing access. Do I have that right? So divers complained to FDOT, FDOT puts up a sign, fishermen complain to Riviera Beach council, Julia B. gets involved, despite the fact that it is not a city park, and FDOT removes the signs saying a proper review was not done. Do I have that right? Why would anyone be messaging Julia B about this? It sounds like it is solely an FDOT decision. Why would the city council think that they have any say in this matter? Just because they successfullly pressured FDOT. They did so based on a thorough review not being completed, so why are we not just pressuring FDOT to complete a thorough review? When I first read about this, it sounded like, from the outcry, all bridge fishing was temporarily banned. But that was not the case at all, was it?

This seems like an extremely obvious solution. There are a number of bridges throught PBC that do not allow fishing from the pedestrian walkway. Why in the world should this one be any different? Especially considering it is the only one frequented by divers. BHB was not singled out for no fishing, but I hope they will be with the abhorrent behavior some of the fishermen are now showing.
 
You are correct the City of Riviera Beach should have no say in this as it is an FDOT right of way. That being said the city council and city government are a bunch of corrupt entitled assholes who scream very loudly and as the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease!
 
You are correct the City of Riviera Beach should have no say in this as it is an FDOT right of way. That being said the city council and city government are a bunch of corrupt entitled assholes who scream very loudly and as the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease!

I made some calls today, and it was really strange. The FDOT communications director (The spokesperson) for the district had no idea what I was talking about. He was very familiar with the Jensen bridge, which happened in January and caused an outcry, but he was utterly clueless about BHB. He said that there was a bridge, and he wasn't sure if it was the BHB where non-FDOT individuals put up no-fishing signs, and FDOT removed them. He's checking into it for me, but it all struck me as very odd, and now that I am looking at media reports on it, nobody ever quoted FDOT directly, they just quoted what Julia B said FDOT said.

We need a diving lobby in South Florida, apparently, because this is all super weird and I think we've got a lot of divers barking up the wrong tree at a local politician who was just looking for attention for her re-election campaign.
 
While some fishermen want 24-hour-a-day access to the bridge, Jim Abernethy, who owns Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures feels there should be no fishing from the bridge, and divers should be allowed to dive under the bridge at all times. This is a unique underwater environment; fishermen should not be allowed to farm it. Let them fish off the shore, if at all.
Was that his boat I saw anchored today just outside the swimming area on the eastside, where that old cabin cruiser Sue Sez used to be moored? So its ok for him to put his props in area where everybody is diving but the fisherman shouldn't be allowed to fish off the bridge? Why would anybody pay him a plug nickel to dive off a boat there, when they can park for free and dive there? I have seen dive boats anchor off the south west side, when its blowing twenty knots and the ocean has 8-10ft seas, far as I know sea conditions were mild today. The props on his boat are exponentially more dangerous to divers than a dozen fisherman with treble hooks. Why doesn't he take his boat off the shore, if at all.
 
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