Oceanside towns are, by default, caretakers of their beaches. These towns also profit greatly, in the form of tourist dollars, by their proximity to the natural playground. They may, under civil law, possess the sandy land that is the only shoreside access to the sea. Natural law, albeit intangible, is not so exclusive.
A sense of basic right and wrong tells you that nature, in this case the beaches and surf, belongs to everyone equally. The institution of the beach fees flows from a desire for dollars. Businesses, landlords and residents, looking for a way to increase revenues without touching their own pockets, chose to stand in front of their dunes with their hands outstretched for a toll.
Beach cleaning, lifeguards and summer police officers, often cited as reasons for beach fees, do cost money, but it is a cost of doing business. A clean, protected environment is necessary to attract visitors who will sleep in your motels, eat in your restaurants, shop in your stores, and gas up before heading home. Taxing them for the right to enter the natural attraction that drew them to your towns is nothing less than arrogant.
Janice H. Egan
Pitman
* After spending $12 for bait at a tackle shop, I was ready to start surf fishing at Barnegat Light. I was confronted by a young woman who asked me if I had a beach badge.
I asked the girl her age and she said she was 19. I replied that when I was her age, I was fighting for my country. I told her that when I had landed on four enemy-held islands in the Pacific (The Marshalls, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima) nobody had asked me for a beach badge.
She replied, ``I don't know anything about that, but you will have to leave the beach if you don't buy a badge for $4.''
I packed up my fishing equipment and left the beach, feeling a little bitter. It wasn't the sum of $4; it is the whole principle of having to pay to use a beach that should be part of the public domain.
