The Tidal Finfish Advisory Council Seeks Public Input On Surf Tags

(April 5, 2022) … The Tidal Finfish Advisory Council (TFFAC) advises DNREC on many issues and voices concerns of their constituents. In other words your county reps for the TFFAC are your way to reach out to DNREC. It is how I ask DNREC questions about limits, making changes, and concerns about the fishery
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Due to the recent issue(s) with surf tags. The TFFAC is asking the secretary of DNREC to speak to the council about the surf tag issue(s), updates, and possible solutions at the TFFAC meeting April 20th. This is your chance to ask and suggest to DNREC through your TFFAC county representatives.

” My goal/task is to get the input of the TFFAC rec. reps. (emails listed below) input on what questions they would like posed to the Secretary. The job of the Councilors is to voice concerns from their constituents.  I’ve let them know they may be getting questions from stakeholders, and I will be reaching out to them before the meeting to come up with a list of issues to pass along for discussion.” Dewayne Fox Chairman of TFFAC

Email your recreational TFFAC county representatives before the 20th of April.
Out of state folks. If you have a house in the area email the rep that your dwelling is located. The rest of you that fish down here email the Sussex county representative.

Suggestion for your email(s) .. be nice, and concise. Yelling at people is a waste of time and never gets anywhere. Trust me on this, I watch people lose their ground constantly for a cause by going to crazy town.
Try not to burn out the servers this time

Bernie Pankowski New Castle County representative TFFAC bp@dbs4pos.com

Jay Little Kent County representative TFFAC lurefest@gmail.com

Michael Cerchio Sussex County representative TFFAC mcerchio@comcast.net

My opinion?
I think the beaches need to be protected better with limited vehicle access. Unlimited tag sales. The beaches are being destroyed and it has spiraled out of control. It is not one person’s fault it has just come to a head. Grown adults are going to have to be forced to share, the tag limit sure isn’t working. Let the wait start at the gates to get on the beach. The parking lot on the beach in the summer is terrible. Limit the amount of vehicles and the beaches will do better. It will relieve a myriad of issues as well, during the crowded summer weekends. Freeing up resources (enforcement) needed elsewhere.
Get rid of the actively fishing rule too, they are just in the way of real surf anglers. You will never get rid of that factor, that is such a fantasy. The antiquated solutions will never work, because they haven’t yet.
Modern problems require modern solutions.

75% of tags are Delaware owned, 25% out of state.

Assateague sells roughly 9,000 permits a year at 150$ just to drive on the beach. The entry fee into the park is extra at 45$ for the year.
Delaware could easily limit vehicles and still sell unlimited tags. The new limited access tag is unlimited anyway I mean how many hairs we gonna split?
The federal limit is 7 vehicles per mile. Assateague is limited to 149 vehicles. We don’t have to go that extreme. The covid restriction limits at 60 feet between vehicles was perfect.
We did that math “rough” using Google tools in 2020 …

Beach Plum Island State Park … 51 vehicles in 3,077 feet

Cape Henlopen State Park
Point Comfort Station crossing … 38 vehicles in roughly 2,257 feet
Naval Crossing … 87 vehicles in 5,249 feet*
Herring Point to Gordons Pond … 136 vehicles in 8152 feet*

Delaware Seashore State Park …
Key Box to Faithful Steward … 275 vehicles in 16,512 feet*
3R’s … 82 vehicles in 4,921 feet*

Fenwick Island State Park
York to south crossing … 207 vehicles in 12,467 feet*

* taking into account the areas off limits to vehicles, roughly

People can fish, group or whatever at those numbers. One off one on. Surf anglers, don’t freak out. Because you fish early, the beach is yours till you decide to leave.
No more cars stuck on the beach.
Taxiing lots of people in and out is over, less traffic tearing up the beach.
A lot is solved with limited vehicles.
At Assateague a ranger doesn’t bother with you unless your vehicle or you are on fire.
Delaware is a hot mess of stress and rules no one is actually following, just actively blowing off.
Huge waste of resources and time.

I’m done .. I could rant about what everyone rants to me about all day long. See how tiring that is?
Imma go surf fish. With my new off season pleasant tag, it only cost me $35 to drive on the beach this year, when the fishing is the best anyway.
Winning