NJ beaches are closed

[Native Floridian]

For those considering hunting NJ beaches, they are closed. The all clear has not been sounded. Considering the level of devastation, it may not be for some time.

There will be plenty of time to hunt once outsiders are allowed across the causeways and bridges to the barrier islands. At this time even residents are not allowed back into most of these towns. In some of these places people have lost everything.

Hunting amongst the devastation is controversial at least, and poor judgement at best. Regardless of what it says about the people who would hunt under those conditions, it gives our hobby a black eye. Even worse would be coming on to a forum like this to brag about your wins. I for one would have to wonder if it's a well detected beach find or booty gained from looting destroyed property. That is, property that was smashed by the sea and spread out on the beach.

Sorry if this offends anyone. I'm bothered by some of the drooling over getting to the devastated beach. I'll now dismount my high horse and return you to the regularly scheduled program.

 

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[nickmarch]

Wildwood beaches are open. There was a slew of people detecting this morning and yesterday afternoon. They let people back on the island yesterday afternoon. Wawa opened about 3pm.

 

[jeff of pa]

For those considering hunting NJ beaches, they are closed. The all clear has not been sounded. Considering the level of devastation, it may not be for some time.

There will be plenty of time to hunt once outsiders are allowed across the causeways and bridges to the barrier islands. At this time even residents are not allowed back into most of these towns. In some of these places people have lost everything.

Hunting amongst the devastation is controversial at least, and poor judgement at best. Regardless of what it says about the people who would hunt under those conditions, it gives our hobby a black eye. Even worse would be coming on to a forum like this to brag about your wins. I for one would have to wonder if it's a well detected beach find or booty gained from looting destroyed property. That is, property that was smashed by the sea and spread out on the beach.

Sorry if this offends anyone. I'm bothered by some of the drooling over getting to the devastated beach. I'll now dismount my high horse and return you to the regularly scheduled program.

And the opposite opinion

No real Judgement from me on your opinion N_F but if I were considering everything you said,
I'd also consider the possibilities,
you want it all for yourself or were an Archie

No fear from me, I live too far away to do it, but personally would have stayed behind if I lived there
& if weather permitting would be down there today with no conscience .
if weather not permitting, Maybe I'd be on here saying stay away

Either way everything on the beaches is public & ocean property, & you better believe the clean-up crew are treasure hunters,
& if it doesn't have names it's first come first serve

 

[Native Floridian]

jeff, I feel sorry for you, that you are that much of a cynical person.

My message is clear. There is a time for hunting. Before the all clear is not it.

Try hunting before the all clear and let us know how the public beach speech works out with the local police.

 

[jeff of pa]

jeff, I feel sorry for you, that you are that much of a cynical person.

My message is clear. There is a time for hunting. Before the all clear is not it.

Try hunting before the all clear and let us know how the public beach speech works out with the local police.

N_F you or anyone own all the beaches Boarder to Boarder ?
point being, My guess there are most likely a few beaches
in N.J. where nobody would care what you do, unless they are into detecting and didn't hear about it before
they saw your finds.

anyway too much like winter out there for me to even hunt here the next 7 days ,
I just think people should not tell anyone to stay away from the beaches without adding,
"unless you checked with an authority if that particular beach is allowing it at the moment"

I don't believe in selective access to what is described as "Public"

but Please take Care

& post your finds

Jeff

 

[Native Floridian]

Jeff, I agree with you, mostly. In normal times all the public beaches are fair game. These are not normal times. Maybe we are looking at different pictures. The NJ beach towns I'm seeing took a major hit. Now is not the time to be hunting those beaches. My comments are limited to that context. Hunting a beach that contains the scattered contents of beach houses is no different than looting the scattered contents of a tornado aftermath. Or, to bring it home for you jeff, had you hunted that Airliner site while the fire was still smouldering. OK, to hunt it later, but let EMS do their jobs first. Plenty of time later.


BTW, your comment that perhaps I'm trying to misdirect people so I can have the the booty for myself is insulting and imo shows your greed dial is turned up way too high. Quite frankly, TH being a site that spends considerable bandwidth promoting the ethics of metal detecting, it's more than a little disconserting that moderator would challenge a thread asking for ethical behavoir.

 

[strateloss]

Just saying.....People in Jersey may actually stone you to death if you go near a devastated area where their homes and communities were demolished. The treasure hunter in me says yes, but my morales say No.

Was wildwood hit hard? No info on it from the news. Cape may was shown, but no Wildwood.

 

[jeff of pa]

BTW, your comment that perhaps I'm trying to misdirect people so I can have the the booty for myself is insulting and imo shows your greed dial is turned up way too high. Quite frankly, TH being a site that spends considerable bandwidth promoting the ethics of metal detecting, it's more than a little disconserting that moderator would challenge a thread asking for ethical behavoir.

N_F My apologies , you apparently took my comment too seriously .
I thought my first part

No real Judgement from me on your opinion

would have made you realize I was just being a little sarcastic with "no real judgement"

as for ethics I'd be one of the first ones to put down looting.
but i guess the description of looting can mean several different things to several different people,
& for example , I wouldn't consider it looting to hunt the shore line in front of Resorts casino ,
or even where the boardwalk was. You ?

 

[Native Floridian]

Glad to hear it wasn't meant to insult. Apology accepted and I too apologize for my comments to you.

Actually, right now, under these circumstances, if the contents of that casino/commercial property were strewn on the beach I would consider it looting. It's looting until the owners walk away declaring it a total loss. It's looting if done before the beach is reopened. Past that, fair game!!! If the buildings weren't split open, are intact, then yeah, lets go!!!

Looks like the casinos survived intact so that could be a prime hunting area once things open up. And, just to cover the base - The AC beach is the worst kept secret hunting location in the country. Everybody and their brother knows about the place. The beach opened up big time just before the last replenishment, word got out, and honestly you had to take a number to hunt that beach! I hunted it the night before word got out. No gold bling but over 70 coins from that hunt including 20 silver and two buffs. Those days could be back.

I found my very first beach hunting find ever on that beach - a 1903 Indian Head. I'd been hunting all of five minutes and said to myself - This beach hunting stuff is easy!!! Oh so little did i know!

 

[jeff of pa]

Apology accepted even though I wasn't upset

yes I would guess the areas under the boardwalk & Closest 10 feet to the buildings would be the oldest coins.
I'm not sure how wide the original boardwalk was, but I would guess not even half as wide as it is now.

& also doubt the casinos received any damage other then the lights & decorations maybe

now some of the older shops may have been damaged bad.

anyway as I said. out of my range, & I just haven't perfected beach hunting,
only having 4 days of it in my life 3 in AC & 1 in MD
3 of them planted hunts

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Down here many get on the beach as soon as possible after a hurricane, we are talking hours after it passes, not days.. Some have got on right after the eye has passed on cat 1 hurricane if they are on the back side south of where eye came ashore. One guy was picking up pieces of 8 that were just laying on the surface in 2004....Didn't need a detector.

 

[Native Floridian]

Coin finds in AC can be anywhere on the beach. Over the past 150 years there have been numerous piers built out over the water. Many collapsed over time, but the booty from what fell thru their boards remains. As do the drops from beach goers who flocked to the place over 100 years ago.

That's the draw of AC, you never know what's going to come up in the scoop. Could be a pull tab, could be a 100 year old gold wedding band, or a 130 year old coin. Even old metal transit tokens - cool!!!

The boardwalk has been rebuilt more times than we can count. The last replenishment put a high dune in front of the boardwalk and shut off hunting. There is a Life Guard Station built on pilings in front of the Taj. Before the replenishment you could walk under that building. Sometimes with several feet of clearance for hunters over six feet tall. After replen, the building sits almost flush with the beach. Again, hunting the old coins shut down. We'll have to wait to see if Sandy changes any of this.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

reply

Jeff, I agree with you. There is utterly no way they can patrol 1000 + miles of ocean front. And those type spots where they may actually be "shooing" away people, are probably just hot spots, where buildings are in danger of looters. Hence, if you were on a beach directly in front of a hot-spot like that, then ..... sure ..... you might get snared in the same net that ANYONE waltzing around there would be in.

Those who are in fear that "the beaches are closed", are probably a) hearing the nightly news, where some repororette said something like this (simply because she probably tuned in to the weather scanner surf advisories, blah blah "be safe" kinda girly-talk), or b) because they asked some official, who will just take the "easy" answer, and tell you "no, the beach is closed".

For example: here in CA, during the 1997-98 storms, some beaches indeed *did* have their beach access closed off (the trails leading in, or parking lots adjacent to them, etc....). Because stairs to the beach had been damaged, and the surf was dangerous, etc..... So ... sure, you might encounter a city guy shooing people away, or a yellow ribbon draped across the entrace path, etc... And .... sure, I bet if I asked enough bureaucrats "can I go to the beach?" I'm sure I'd have found one to say "no" (to my "pressing question"). But the *reality* was, we would merely go a block further down, and walk in another way. Or go to a beach a mere 1/2 mile away, and so forth. There is simply no way they can patrol 1000 miles of coast-line.

And if you ask me, I can say from 30 yrs. experience of beach storm hunting, that you do NOT wait till later, to detect. You need to get on those things right away, as sometimes the window of erosion is short. Or conversely, it can erode in the days or weeks to follow, as mother nature robs sand from up high, to fill in voids off-shore, and so forth. But in no sense would I wait around, unless there were pinkerton armed gaurds out there shooing people away.

 

[Native Floridian]

Tom in Ca - many of the beaches here are actually closed. As in the local PD will escort you off the beach as they did today to a couple of my friends. In other towns, today, beach hunting was Ok, but not strolling around surveying the damage. Go figure! there is a third category where beaches are closed to detecting but open to walking jogging etc.



Beach hunting is beginning to open up in NJ. Thankfully, hunters are using discretion and are not hunting the more devasted areas. The finds, so far, not spectacular.

 

[Tom_in_CA]

Tom in Ca - many of the beaches here are actually closed. As in the local PD will escort you off the beach as they did today to a couple of my friends. In other towns, today, beach hunting was Ok, but not strolling around surveying the damage. Go figure! there is a third category where beaches are closed to detecting but open to walking jogging etc.



Beach hunting is beginning to open up in NJ. Thankfully, hunters are using discretion and are not hunting the more devasted areas. The finds, so far, not spectacular.

Native-floridian, sure then, you conclude that some beaches can be hunted now, and no one will shoo you away. Other posts from skittish persons are saying "oh no, all the beaches are closed".

And I suppose, that on those beaches you consider "open now", it's simply because you have not asked enough bureaucrats "can I metal detect?". If you did, and caught some official in the mood of conjuring up a mental image that you are "looting" for "unfortunate people's losses" (never mind the fact that that is ridiculous, and we're looking for things decades or centuries old!), you will indeed eventually find yourself a "no". Whatever beach you might *think* is open, I can easily get just as quickly "closed", by simply going and asking with the right combination of buzz-words. Then I merely feed into the forums the news (complete with the quotes from the "official" that I asked), that the "beach is off-limits".

The moral of this story?

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I would just go and try to detect, I sure wouldn't call and ask any official.

 

[Native Floridian]

Tom in CA, yeah the moral of the story is it's better to ask for forgiveness than perrmission. We get it!

That said, you are missing the point. Almost all of NJ's 127 mile coastline is barrier islands. You couldn't hunt the beaches because the PDs had closed off the causeways and bridges. short of swimming across the five miles of bay and sedges there was no access! That is beginning to change in the southern part of the state where things aren't totally wiped out. As of 10 am this morning, from LBI north thru Seaside, still closed to all but EMS. Brigantine open to homeowners only, AC and Ventnor still closed.

No assumptions on what is closed or open. The jersey shore hunters are tied together by no less than three FB pages. We can see exactly what's happening and where in real time as many communicate via smart phones right from the beach as it's happening.