WHO NEEDS TO REGISTER?

NOTE: Anglers with a valid registration with the National Saltwater Angler Registry or have a valid license from another exempted state are required to register (for free) with the NJ Saltwater Recreational Registry Program. Registration with NJ will exempt you from having to register with the National Saltwater Angler Registry.

Individual saltwater anglers ages 16 and older MUST register if ANY of the following criteria are met:

* Recreationally fish with a hand line or rod and line, spearfish or fish by hand
* Recreationally fish in the marine and fresh tidal waters of the State of New Jersey
* Recreationally fish in marine waters outside the State of New Jersey but land the catch in New Jersey

Individual saltwater anglers are EXEMPT from registering if either of the following apply:

* Under the age of 16
* Solely fish on for-hire (party and charter) vessels that are registered with the New Jersey Saltwater Recreational Registry Program

For-hire vessel owners/operators MUST register if:

* Carry individuals who engage in recreational fishing in the marine and fresh tidal waters of the State of New Jersey

OR

* Carry individuals who engage in recreational fishing in the marine waters outside the State of New Jersey but land their catch in New Jersey

on Tuesday, June 8, 2010 from 6pm-8pm.

Tickets are $50, all proceeds benefit The Foodbank of Monmouth& Ocean County

For tickets call the Foodbank 732-918-2600

The American horseshoe crab, Limulus Polyphemus, occupies a critical niche in both the ecology of the Atlantic Ocean and in human pharmacology. Each spring as the crab comes ashore to spawn, its eggs provide food for hundreds of thousands of shorebirds flying north from South America to breeding grounds in the Arctic.  There is an amazing documentary called A Tale of Two Species about the relationship between Horseshoe Crabs and the endangered shorebird the Red Knot. In human medicine, the crab is bled, with no apparent harmful effects, to procure a compound that is used by the pharmaceutical industry to test intravenous drugs for dangerous bacteria. Yet despite the horseshoe crab’s importance, no one knew much about its population status until recently.

In 1990, Delaware Sea Grant organized the first census of breeding horseshoe crabs in Delaware Bay.   The Shark River Cleanup Coalition began surveying the Shark River Bay in  2006.  Now, every spring on several peak spawning days, volunteers donate their time to count crabs on key beaches in Delaware and New Jersey.

People interested in seeing this sight first hand can come and volunteer by meeting with the survey teams at the “L” St. Beach  in Belmar at the following dates and times:

Wednesday, May 12 6:45 pm
Friday, May 14 8:00 pm
Sunday, May 16  9:30 pm

Tuesday, May 25 6:00pm
Thursday, May 27 7:30pm

Saturday, May 29 9:00 pm

Thursday, June 10 6:30pm
Saturday, June 12 7:45 pm
Monday, June 14 9:30 pm

Thursday, June 24 6:30pm

Saturday, June 26 8:00pm

Monday, June 28 9:30pm

Volunteers will learn how to conduct the survey, how to properly record data and how to distinguish between male and female horseshoe crabs. For more information or to register for the training, please contact Ed Lippincott at chefed@mac.com or call 732-681-0059

Over the past decade, the Borough has upgraded its marina into one of the finest facilities of its kind on the east coast, including more than 70 slips available for transient boaters who can rent on a daily or weekly basis. This spring, the Borough will start the next phase of upland marina improvements, which are designed to make the already popular marina a top destination for transient boaters in the New York metropolitan area, as well for land-based visitors and especially the residents of Belmar. These improvements will include the renovation this spring of the Ninth Avenue pier to include not a seasonal bar and grill, but also landscaping and seating areas for the public, a nautical flag pole and memorial area to honor Pat and Sandy Breslin, areas equipped for festival or seasonal vendors to display their goods and a booth where visitors can book kayak rentals, charter fishing, diving and sightseeing trips, eco-tours other activities.

The restaurant concession will be offered with a Special Concessionaire Permit from the State of New Jersey to serve alcohol pursuant to N.J.S.A. 33:1-42 and N.J.A.C. 13:2-5.2 (liquor license). The permit will be subject to limited hours of service and other conditions, which will be discussed at the February 11 informational session.

Currently there is only one location for service of food in the marina, a luncheonette located in the Borough’s Harbor Master building. This concession is also currently up for lease. The Mayor and Council are preparing bid specifications for both locations, and would like input from experienced restaurant owners, who may be interested in leasing this space and/or the Ninth Avenue Pier. Although 80 restaurateurs have been invited to attend, the informational meeting is open to all interested potential bidders, as well as the public at large, and the Borough plans to use information and ideas obtained during the informational meeting when preparing the bid and lease documents.

This bid opportunity is not in lieu of, but rather in addition to, the Borough’s longer-term plan to replace the Harbor Master building with a much larger, permanent building which will include a fine-dining restaurant with Concession Permit License on the second floor, as well as a variety of first-floor uses including a casual foods, ice cream, bait, tackle and chandlery, and other marine-related retail uses. The Borough has applied to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection for a CAFRA permit to develop this larger facility, most likely pursuant to a long-term ground lease, and will hold additional meetings in the future once the necessary permit has been obtained.

Anyone interested in attending the February 11, 2010 meeting or in leasing the new outdoor concessions on the Ninth Avenue pier and/or the current luncheonette, and would like to review either the draft lease agreements should contact Borough Administrator Robbin Kirk at rkirk@boro.belmar.nj.us

Currently, visitors to Belmar.com can access a webcam only through a link to an NJ.com-sponsored webcam mounted on the front of the Eastern Lines Surf Shop on Ocean Avenue. Although this fixed, still-shot camera provides a view of only a narrow slice of Belmar’s beach and boardwalk, it has proved to be enormously popular with Belmar.com visitors. In fact, despite its limited features, this one webcam accounts for upwards of 15% of all summer-time visits to Belmar.com.

The Borough’s two new webcams will use a more feature-rich version of TrueLook software to provide streaming, as opposed to still-shot images, and viewers will be able to pan, tilt and zoom the camera to capture a wide array of scenes. The TrueLook software will also include a variety of special features, including enabling My Belmar members to sign up to receive photos of Belmar’s magnificent sunrises over the Atlantic and equally spectacular sunsets over the Shark River. Moreover, unlike the NJ.com webcam, Belmar will be able to earn advertising revenue from these new webcams, and also use the cams in a variety of ways to promote Belmar’s special events and downtown, marina and beachfront business communities.

The Taylor Pavilion webcam will provide a 360-degree view, enabling viewers to see Belmar's entire beachfront.

Taylor Pavilion's roof also provides an excellent vantage point for viewing Belmar's busy boardwalk and Ocean Avenue.

As part of the webcam project, the Borough is also installing wireless directional antennae on the roof tops of the Taylor Pavilion and the Senior Citizen Building that can transmit data at high speeds via line-of-site wireless links between the two buildings. (There is no broadband cable service east of the boardwalk).

This view from the Senior Citizen Building of the rooftop of the Taylor Pavilion at Fifth & Ocean enables the buildings to be linked via wireless line-of-site antennas.

Because there is no broadband cable service east of the boardwalk, the Borough will use wireless directional antennas like this one on the roof of the Taylor Pavilion to transmit the data stream from the webcam to the rooftop of the Belmar Senior Citizen Building, a half mile away, where it will be uploaded to the internet via a fiber optic cable.

The Belmar Tourism Commission is funding the cost of the cameras, weatherproof enclosures, wireless antennae and routers and cables, poles and mounting equipment, and will also manage the advertising revenue from the cameras, as well as their promotional use to support Belmar’s special events and Belmar’s businesses. Advertising revenue from the webcams will pay for the ongoing software and maintenance of the cams, and fund the expansion of the program. The design and technical aspects of the installation are being handled on a volunteer basis by long-time Belmar resident Marshall Boxer. Special thanks is also owed to Luis A. David, who is the Senior Learning Manager for SCOPE Center at Brookdale. Luis spent 23-years with AT&T Communications in both networking and engineering, and has been an invaluable resource for Marshall and the Borough in the planning and implementation of this ambitious project. Special thanks are also owed to the Public Works Department, and in particular Rich Neral, who is handling the installation and cabling of the system. Thanks are also owed to Borough Administrator Robbin Kirk, who has handled the procurement issues is spearheading the installation of broadband service to the Senior Citizens Building.

The webcam on the roof of the Belmar Senior Citizens Building will provide 360-degree views of the downtown and marina area of the Borough.

The webcam atop the Senior Citizen Building will provide views of the inlet and Seaport Redevelopment Area.

The Venture III operating out of Belmar Marina is a multipurpose vessel, but over 25 years has earned a particularly venerable reputation as a diving boat.  Captains Paul and Ruth Hepler, both certified scuba divers, have used Venture III to assist NJ’s Reef Program build and monitor NJ reefs and bring scuba divers of all experience levels to visit these natural and manmade attractions.  Their 46′ crew boat can handle diving groups of up to 18 and offers open boat diving and night diving at NJ’s best shipwrecks, natural rock and reef diving spots.  As for fishing charters, the Venture III can hold up to 24 people and will fish day or night, inshore or offshore, year round.  Bait and tackle is included.  Climb aboard and experience the hidden treasures of the Atlantic Ocean!

For more information, call captain Paul Hepler at (732) 928-4519 or venturediveboat@aol.com.

Visit www.SharkRiverKayaks.com for more information or call (732) 749-0490.

“Got up early the next morning, the 4th of July, and booked it outta there. We portaged our boats across sandy hook to the ocean, which was hellacious, and finally got out on the water for the day. We paddled down to NJ coastline and were shocked. The number of people on the Jersey Shore was unbelievable. really. i think we passed over a million people on our way to Belmar. It was incredible. These people are SERIOUS about thier beach time.  We saw so many scary bathing suits, rainbow umbrellas, a fly over, GI Joe come out of a low flying helicopter, a boardwalk fair, and a gazillion plane ads. It was awesome. We entered the Shark River and paddled to the docks for Shark River Kayak Company and met Brenda and Bert. So glad to get to Belmar. We took showers and were wisked away to a cookout and met the town, had some home-made SWEET TEA, (by a NC resident) and met the mayor, who gave me a kiss on the cheek. Can’t complain. We then took a low speed electric vehicle to the fireworks. After that, we set up our tent on a little floating dock and slept like babies… except for when the party boat from NYC came back to dock.”

Click here to follow Dan and Bethany’s journey to Key West.  To learn more about the Shark River Kayak Co., click here.

Happy kayaking!

Kayak Bob cruising in an LSV -- woof!

The Shark River Kayak Company now rents LSVs (Low-Speed Vehicles) at their “Yak Shack” in the Belmar Marina.  These LSVs are 100% street legal and 100% green.  Legal on streets with a speed limit not to exceed 25 mph, you can cruise the Shore from Asbury Park to Sea Girt.  For more info, contact the Shark River Kayak Co. at (732) 749-0490; www.SharkRiverKayaks.com.