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Old 10-12-2008, 07:26 PM
 
3 posts, read 12,978 times
Reputation: 11

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The town of Brookhaven has banned fishing at Shoreham Beach. People have been fishing at this beach for years. After labor day, they closed the beach to EVERYONE, but after some outcry the beach was reopened. Fishing is still banned there. The town board is doing the bidding of some local shore front residents who are trying to turn public beaches into private beaches.

Long Island residents pay incredibly high taxes for use of public parks, beaches, etc , and are now being denied access to these beaches. The Town of Brookhaven has 153 miles of coastline and a population of 448,519 with only 14 areas to go fishing legally.

In this day of age of high taxes, high gas prices and a crumbling economy it is unconscionable the politicians would take away a resource like this from the tax paying residents of Long Island and beyond.

In my opinion, these actions by the town board are illegial and only serve a select few , not all the residents of Brookhaven and beyond.

Many groups are now fighting this ban , but the town will not budge. When you go to the voting booth dont forget the politicians who are behind this action.

There is an on-line petition on this issue. If you care about your rights, whether you are a fisherman or not, please sign the petition and spread the word. We can not let this action by the town board stand.

click below to sign petition :

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/shorehamban
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Old 10-13-2008, 06:34 AM
 
4,502 posts, read 13,430,573 times
Reputation: 4098
I'm not sure if I would want to eat any seafood caught off the Long Island shore. With all the pesticide runoff and everything else that's found in those waters, I'd be scared for my health/life to eat anything from them. I don't even swim in the waters at the LI beaches.
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Old 10-13-2008, 11:17 PM
 
Location: Westbury,NY
2,940 posts, read 8,293,199 times
Reputation: 1398
It actually may be illegal to ban people from walking along a beach, I think there's a law that says within 20 ft of the waterline is public right of way. So I will walk where I want as long as it's along the shoreline. Anyone who gets ticketed has a ligit right to fight it. As far as fishing goes, it's illegal to ban salt water fishing anywhere, it's just the quotas that cant be exceeded and the DEC regulates that.l Brookhaven is breaking the law. Fisherman...fish away...Brookhaven has no legal basis to hand out tickets. yes its another example of goverment by the rich few. But you dont have to obey the rich, I certainly dont.
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Old 10-14-2008, 06:19 PM
 
3 posts, read 12,978 times
Reputation: 11
Default Public Trust Doctrine

The Public Trust Doctrine states that land below the mean high tide mark is open to the public. So anyone who owns beach front property can not claim they own the beach. By banning fishing at Shoreham Beach and threatning to arrest anyone with trespassing who steps foot on the beach with a fishing rod, the Town of Brookhaven is violating the Public Trust Doctrine by not allowing access to these beaches, public and private.
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Old 10-14-2008, 07:36 PM
 
Location: Inis Fada
16,966 posts, read 34,564,498 times
Reputation: 7722
What you need to do is further research into the Dongan Patent. (I have been going nuts the past couple of days trying to recall the name of the document.) Someone within the Town might be in violation of it.

Here's the Patent:

Dongan Patent: December 27, 1686

Over 300 years ago, our founding fathers were granted the rights to all waterways, ponds, streams, brooks, wetlands, rivers and other estuaries, as trustees for the early settlers and for residents today. The Dongan Patent for the Town of Brookhaven, issued by Governor Dongan, is the historic and legal document that provided the foundation for Brookhaven Town government.

The Patent provided for seven Trustees, to be elected annually, and of these, the first chosen should be the President. It also provided for the election of a Clerk, and other officials. Provisions are made for a Town Seal and the raising of taxes. The patent gives the Trustees full power to sell or dispose of the proprietary lands of the Town, vesting in them that authority as agents. It also empowers the freeholders and inhabitants, as represented by the trustees, to be "one body corporate and politique," capable of making acts, order, and "to plead and be impleaded, defend or be defended in law."

This Trustee form of government predates the establishment of the State of New York, and the United States of America. The price in exchange for the Patent was: "20 barrells of whale oyle to be delivered in New York at 20 shillings per barrell, 19 barrells to be delivered at the South beach at 20 shillings per barrell and three score and twelve pounds to be paid in good Cowes and Calbes at forty shillings each, to the Treasurer at or before the fifteenth day of April next."

To this day, the Dongan Patent is used to resolve many legal questions involving preservation of natural resources and our underground water supply, as well as the free and common usage of our waterways.
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Old 10-18-2008, 08:06 AM
 
3 posts, read 12,978 times
Reputation: 11
Quite ironically the info on Dongan Pact is right on the Town of Brookhavens web site !! I guess they do not practice what they preach !
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Old 10-18-2008, 08:47 AM
 
Location: Inis Fada
16,966 posts, read 34,564,498 times
Reputation: 7722
Now what you have to do is find local fishing clubs and individual fishermen who will be negatively impacted by this decision and see if you can find some sort of legal representation in order to make the Town reconsider their decision.

If the town can remove one recreational fishing area now, what is going to stop them later when some other waterfront homeowner complains? It's bad enough that duck hunters (A LI tradition dating back centuries) are losing their hunting space on the water to Molly and Milton McMansion. But to live on an ISLAND and lose fishing rights, too?
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