A Belmar surfer was recently detained and arrested for allegedly not showing a 12 dollar beach pass. Photo: Austin Downs // Facebook
New Jersey lawmakers have introduced a bill clarifying that ‘beach badges’ are not needed for surfers or anglers to access the water. The legislation comes in the wake of the dramatic arrest of a surfer in Belmar that brought the divisive admission passes to the forefront of conversation regarding public beach access.
The bill was introduced by assemblywoman Margie Donlon, a Democrat from Monmouth County. According to the text of the legislation, entitled Bill A4816, it “would prohibit a municipality from requiring a municipal beach tag or similar admission pass for access to the wet sandy beach below the mean high tide line, for a surfer or a fisherman for the exclusive purpose of surfing or fishing.”
Many New Jersey surfers would be quick to point out that beach tags are actually already not required for surfing. Donlon confirmed this, telling the Ashbury Park Press that, based on a law approved by Gov. Phil Murphy in 2019, a beach user does not need a pass if they are crossing the sand to enter the ocean. However, in practice, there have been disputes related to different interpretations and enforcement of the law in various municipalities. “It’s been a long conversation in these surfing and fishing communities,” said Donlon. “This is not something that’s necessarily new.” She added that the motivation of the bill was to make the existing law clearer.
The most recent example of a municipality clashing with surfers over the existing law took place in Belmar, when a surfer was placed in a choke hold, thrown to the ground and arrested for not having a beach tag. Though the events in Belmar have taken the longstanding debate over public beach access and put it to the forefront, Donlon says the broader implications of that issue are not the focus of this legislation. “What happened in Belmar is certainly calling for a larger conversation on beach access,” she said, “but this bill is more geared towards clarifying what basically already exists but just putting it into clearer language.”.
