Residents in battle with shark fishermen
Rowdy behavior, illegal activity on shore cited
There’s blood in the water along Brevard County’s far southern beaches where shark fishermen and oceanfront owners increasingly battle over access to the shore and what some residents say is illegal activity.
Many of those fishing use multiple poles daily along this nestle of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, local residents say.
It’s not the fishing, per se, that’s the problem, residents say, as much as the rowdy behavior of those fishing and the way they go about it.
Residents say too many cars often pack onto and beyond the narrow public access to the beach, encroaching on surrounding conservation lands and bringing too many people to a spot with no bathroom or other facilities.
There have been some 300 calls to law enforcement over the past two years about loud partying at all hours, trespassing, and burglaries of cars and homes.
Some of the fishermen have threatened retaliation over calls to law enforcement, residents say.
“You don’t see anything but a sea of fishing poles,” Dr. Neal Abarbanell said of the view outside his beachside home. “We’re scared and we need help from our government and our government turned its back on us.”
Abarbanell is so incensed about the issue that he is running for the open County Commission District 3 seat.
It’s a common clash along Florida’s beach sides. Families want to take their toddlers to play safely in the surf. Fishermen seek the adrenaline rush of reeling up sharks and other big fish in the same space.
The narrow sandy strip has been a county public access to the beach since 1958. But tensions between residents and anglers amped up a few years ago, as more and more cars seemed to ‘plow’ the access space there ever-wider.
Maintaining public beach accesses is enshrined in the county’s comprehensive plan, so access points can’t be vacated or diminished without a public hearing and approval by supermajority of the County Commission.
An added wrinkle to the problem has been the county’s ongoing efforts to fortify the sand dunes in the area, which have been damaged by hurricanes in recent years. But replenishment efforts hinge on property owners giving public access to the parts of the beach the residents own. Abarbanell and several others say they declined to sign such waivers.
Shark fishermen assert their rights on private property
Indian River Oaks oceanfront homeowners own the beach in front of their residences. But Florida law also guarantees access to beach below the mean high-water line.
Residents say they coexisted peacefully with fishermen for years.
No one’s sure how or why things got so nasty. One resident said it seemed to get worse with every full moon over the past four years. Others say it was when other towns shut down their beaches during the COVID-19 pandemic and more fishermen discovered this remote public access. Some suspect it also has to do with the advent of higher fees and/ or stricter enforcement of fishing and other rules at nearby parks.
Abarbanell, who moved here in October, says that when he’s asked the fishermen nicely to move down the beach to allow his wife and 2-year-old daughter to enjoy the beach they own in front of their home, the fishermen have been less than chummy, often telling him in a not-so-nice words to go pound sand.
FLORIDA TODAY reached out to other residents who told similar stories but wouldn’t go on record, for fear of retaliation from fishermen.
The owners say they aren’t being pompous or anti-fishing, as they sense the fishermen perceive, but that they’re just petrified and paralyzed about how to restore peace to their once-quiet neighborhood.
The Abarbanells are already considering moving but not without a fight. That’s why Neal Abarbanell say’s he’s running for County Commission.
Indian River Oaks subdivision residents documented about 300 calls from their area made to Brevard County Sheriff’s Office in the past two years. But response in their remote slice of paradise can take hours, they say, with deputies and state wildlife officers only giving warnings but not citations.
Residents say sheriff’s office representatives promised increased patrols when possible and that they’d cite people for trespassing after formal warnings. Abarbanell and others at Indian River Oaks say that never happened.
One sheriff’s office official suggested closing the beach access altogether, residents say, because it’s so remote, has poor lighting, difficult terrain, and the high frequency of calls to law enforcement. But other county officials said they can’t legally block public access and also cited the state dune-replenishment money the access helps to obtain.
Abarbanell, a primary care physician, says he’s seen fishermen dump chum from the beach and/or go about 20 to 30 feet out in a kayak and dump it near where children are in the water. He said he complained to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission about it, to no avail.
Only a few fishermen were around on a recent visit to the public access, and they declined comment for this story.
FLORIDA TODAY’s inquiries by phone and email to reach the sheriff’s office spokesman about the matter were not returned. FWC responded via email saying, “Chumming is not permitted when fishing for any species from the beach or when wade fishing in waters adjacent to a beach. It is permitted elsewhere including from piers or from a vessel.”
The county also refuses to close or limit the parking area in Indian River Oaks because public access is among the ways the state ranks which beaches it funds to build back.
Abarbanell and some others in Indian River Oaks point to photos they’ve taken of cars parked beyond the 36foot-wide easement as proof that too many park there and are damaging conservation lands.