Laws not alowing beach access in Long Island

[sjensenpiper]

I live in farmingdale which is a part of the town of Oyster Bay. I have just learned even though I am a tax paying resident I can not use the public beaches for water access. I am wonder what the deal is with this. I read the code and can under stand that they don't want you to use spear guns with in 200 ft of swimming area but what is the deal with not allowing you to enter and swim out. There is a couple of wrecks right off the beaches. Any thought from any one??

 

[Scott L]

That's a reasonable public policy IMO. I am a native of S Florida beaches and I cannot ever recall witnessing anyone handling spearguns on a beach. The law is basically in place to prevent boats and their divers from nearing public areas...

 

[Bob DBF]

May be I didn't undrestand the situation, will they not let you access via beach at all or not let you access via beach with speargun?

Bob

 

[Belmont]

That's a reasonable public policy IMO. I am a native of S Florida beaches and I cannot ever recall witnessing anyone handling spearguns on a beach. The law is basically in place to prevent boats and their divers from nearing public areas...

???

The OP just mentioned he agrees with the interdiction of spearguns. He never talked about boats.
He wants to know why he can't simply have access to open water from the beach to explore nearby wrecks.

Your comment is of no help to him.

 

[Scott L]

???

The OP just mentioned he agrees with the interdiction of spearguns. He never talked about boats.
He wants to know why he can't simply have access to open water from the beach to explore nearby wrecks.

Your comment is of no help to him.

Why on earth would the OP cloud the issue with speargun chatter then? In areas not accessible by beach one accesses by boat like everywhere else in the nation...

By the way, post #3 is wading through the same difficulties...

 

[Bob DBF]

:

The OP just mentioned he agrees with the interdiction of spear guns. He never talked about boats.
He wants to know why he can't simply have access to open water from the beach to explore nearby wrecks.

The OP said "I read the code and can under stand that they don't want you to use spear guns with in 200 ft of swimming area..." which is reasonable.

The rest of the sentence "...but what is the deal with not allowing you to enter and swim out." does not make it clear whether or not he is entering with the spear gun.

The next statement "There is a couple of wrecks right off the beaches." does not tell me whether or not he wants to look at the wrecks or kill the fish that live there.


The bottom line is the only way any municipality can keep you from using a spear gun within 200 feet of the swimming area is to prohibit anyone from taking them into the water over the beach.

Bob

 

[Belmont]

The OP said "I read the code and can under stand that they don't want you to use spear guns with in 200 ft of swimming area..." which is reasonable.

The rest of the sentence "...but what is the deal with not allowing you to enter and swim out." does not make it clear whether or not he is entering with the spear gun.

The next statement "There is a couple of wrecks right off the beaches." does not tell me whether or not he wants to look at the wrecks or kill the fish that live there.


The bottom line is the only way any municipality can keep you from using a spear gun within 200 feet of the swimming area is to prohibit anyone from taking them into the water over the beach.

Bob

I understand your conclusion and Valhalla's.

It's oftentimes very hard to decipher a person's thoughts with only a few sentences.

I read his statement and chose the shortest most direct route to what he meant.

Your point has as much value as mine, sorry if I sounded harsh.

The OP can now clarify what he meant.

In case there is a regulation forbidding divers (without any hunting equipment) from having access to water from a public area then it is, in my opinion, contrary to the laws that give liberty of movement in your country and mine.

I read a few months ago, on the New England forum, a mention of a town forbidding access to divers from the city beach. It came because of pressure from lobstermen trying to protect their cages from diving "thieves".

 

[sjensenpiper]

Sorry for the confusion. The town will not allow any access from public beaches for shore entry of any kind. I am not going spear fishing just want to explore the wrecks. There is a 200ft buffer zone around the swim areas of the public beaches (this includes boats, jet skiing, surfing, spear fishing and any scuba diving activities unless for the purpose of commercial diving work). So even if the wreck is out side the swim area but with in the 200ft buffer zone you cant explore it. Also because some of the public beaches are almost back to back with maybe a few small privet beaches in between. The law basically makes the any inshore wrecks virtually inaccessibly dew to the buffer zone. I understand not allowing boat, jet skis and spear fishing that is just a safety concern but to not allow diving for exploration is just total BS who are we hurting.

Also the towns in long island are very large and cover from north shore to the south shore in there areas they make it tough to find any water access other then by boat and even that is kind of border line because you can dive with in the 200ft buffer zone. So even if I anchor 300ft a way and swim in I can still get a ticket.

 

[drbill]

Whew... at least here in California access is maintained. Seems strange to allow swimming but not SCUBA diving.

 

[Scott L]

Whew... at least here in California access is maintained. Seems strange to allow swimming but not SCUBA diving.

California did a magnificent job in this regard long ago. drbill, do know the history behind this subject?