N.J. will guard anglers' access

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. - Bowing to an outcry from fishermen worried about getting kicked off the beach at night, New Jersey environmental officials are rewriting their proposed beach access-rules to protect anglers' right to fish during off-hours.

The move by the state Department of Environmental Protection addresses a key complaint about the new rules that emerged at a series of contentious public hearings this spring.

The DEP undertook a sweeping revision of beach-access rules, moving away from a one-size-fits-all rulemaking approach in favor of letting individual Shore towns write their own rules.

That caused an uproar among beach-access advocates worried that towns with a history of discouraging outsiders from using their sand could adopt even more restrictive policies. But the state has called those concerns overblown, asserting that no more than a handful of municipalities are problematic.

Fernando Costa, 39, of Monroe Township in Middlesex County, welcomed the protection for off-hours fishing. A construction worker who says he can only fish when it's raining or at night, he says he and friends are routinely chased from a favorite fishing spot in Cliffwood Beach at dusk by authorities.

"We fish according to the tides, and a lot of the time, the good tides are at night," he said.

Ray Cantor, a top aide to DEP Commissioner Robert Martin, said the department listened to concerns raised at the hearings. The DEP wanted to make sure fishing rights were explicitly addressed in the public-access plans it wants local communities to adopt, he said.

The revised rules should be published in the New Jersey Register by the end of the year and enacted by Memorial Day weekend, he said.

Under former Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine, the state required uniform access standards along the coast, such as requiring access points every quarter-mile and mandating restrooms and parking. Those rules, issued under Corzine's DEP director, Lisa Jackson, now administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, were struck down in 2008 by an appeals court.

Avalon, in Cape May County, sued, saying the state overstepped its bounds by requiring too much public access and unreasonable requirements, such as 24-hour access to beaches and marinas.

Shortly after Gov. Christie took office, his DEP began rewriting the rules to comply with key aspects of the Avalon ruling.