News

By Tim Pallesen    

    Fishermen have won the right to fish for sharks off all but the public beaches in Delray Beach.
    “There’s nothing good about shark fishing near a public beach,” Mayor Cary Glickstein said as city commissioners reached a compromise with an attorney who had threatened to challenge the legality of the city’s shark-fishing ban.
    A city law passed in 2009 prohibited shark fishing, including baiting and chumming, within the city limits. But attorney Blaine Dickenson of Boca Raton argued that only the state can regulate fishing from the beach.
    “Bans on shark fishing are based on unfounded fears caused by the movie Jaws that bathers will get bitten,” Dickenson said. “Sharks are just like any other fish that are scared of people, except they have bigger teeth.”
    City officials worked with Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials to reach a compromise that still prohibits shark fishing within 300 feet north and south of both the municipal beach and Atlantic Dunes Park.
    Glickstein remained concerned at a May 20 meeting about the shark danger for swimmers.
    “Baiting is the biggest problem,” he said, asking that shark fishing be limited to surf casting only.
    “This is already pushing the limits as far as we can,” interim City Attorney Terrill Pyburn said in response.
    In other action last month, city commissioners passed an ordinance that bans aggressive panhandling anywhere in the city. Nonaggressive panhandling is also prohibited in places where the public is likely to feel threatened, such as within 15 feet of sidewalk cafes on Atlantic Avenue.
    Violators face a $50 fine.
    The panhandling ordinance was a recommendation of a police task force studying the city’s homeless population.
    Another recommendation to charge for trolley rides won’t be possible after city officials discovered that county money to purchase the trolleys required that rides be free.