water hunting

lay385 · Apr 9, 2012

how many of you have had the beach police ask, did you know? that you can't walk in the water and metal detect

?

Tom_in_CA · Apr 9, 2012

That's never happened to me. What entity controls the beach where you're detecting at? Eg.: city? county? state? Fed? Whichever entity manages that beach, go to their website, and click down on laws/codes. If it has nothing addressing metal detecting (ie.: no prohibitions), then I'd say the police you encountered is in error. After looking it up and finding no prohibitions on wading/detecting, and printing that out, then the next time he (or anyone) says something like that, you can pull that out, say "I checked already and there's no prohibitions".

True story: One time I had an animal rights activist saying I was interfering with the mating of sea lions (no joke!). She had gone over to get a harbor patrol personell to try to boot me. The two of them pointed off in the distance to sea lions basking on the beach, saying I was interfering with them. I paid them lip service, and left. Once home, I researched the matter to find out exactly what the distance was to which a person would be guilty of actually interfering with wild-life. It was 50 yards or something. So then I went to google satellite, made note of where I'd been detecting verses where the sea lions had been basking/mating on nearby rocks. I was WAY farther away than this yardage. So I printed that out, and carried it with me whenever I detected this beach in the future. As it turns out, no self-appointed naturist ever griped in the future. But the point is: you can see how printing out the rules can be whipped out for any such busy-bodies.

lay385 · Apr 9, 2012

pededio beach sw florida. Thanks for the advice. I'll do just that.

Terry Soloman · Apr 9, 2012

It is VERY possible that you are not allowed in the water there. There are treasure leases (like gold claims) in many Florida waters that are heavily enforced.. Do your research.

Treasure_Hunter · Apr 9, 2012

pededio beach is in the florida panhandle near Pensacola, FL, it is a state park, are you sure you gave us the correct name

bigscoop · Apr 9, 2012

Terry Soloman said:
It is VERY possible that you are not allowed in the water there. There are treasure leases (like gold claims) in many Florida waters that are heavily enforced.. Do your research.

What Terry said. There are places in Florida where you can't detect in the water and they take it very seriously.

Treasure_Hunter · Apr 9, 2012

lay385 said:
how many of you have had the beach police ask, did you know? that you can't walk in the water and metal detect?

Over 90% of Florida beaches are open to detecting, but there is about 10% that are not....Most state parks are off limits, but a few allow it on the beach, you have to ask the ranger when you enter, the treasure coast is off limits in the water as well, but you can hunt from the mean low tide line, to the toe of the dunes, not in the dunes.... Always best to do a little research first, if your not sure ask here ahead of time...

CASPER-2 · Apr 11, 2012

I had a few marine police yell at me - "you cant do that here - hey stop right now"
seems some old biddy called them - they saw scoop and thought I was illegally clamming
when i lifted my machine out of the water - they wave me an okay
Old bat was on beach with her hands on hips with out a clue and was wondering why they did not make me leave
happened again years later with same results - okay to detect
I did dig a lot of clams though too- did not take any but I could have easily supplied a restaraunt with a days haul

Another spot a state trooper pulled up and tried to throw me out of a spot - i had permission from head ranger - he called himdown and told the trooper to leave me alone - I found an expensive $500 radio that one of the rangers ahd dropped in the sand and some smart as kids buried on him - i found it and returned - made a friend for life there

lay385 · Apr 11, 2012

Yes! I understand about state parks ,but I wasn't near a park, in front of hotels and have done it before.
:hello:

Pedido key beach is in west of pensacola.

Treasure_Hunter · Apr 11, 2012

lay385 said:
Yes! I understand about state parks ,but I wasn't near a park, in front of hotels and have done it before.
Pedido key beach is in west of pensacola.

Yep i posted that because in your reply you said sw florida

Tom_in_CA · Apr 11, 2012

lay385 said:
Yes! I understand about state parks ,but I wasn't near a park, in front of hotels and have done it before.

Well I hate to say this lay385, but ...... sometimes you just gotta avoid singular busy-bodies, in the future. I too have been hassled at times over the years, at places I felt there was no specific rule or law. Who knows? maybe someone thought you were harming sandcrabs so they called a ranger? Maybe it was just a single ranger having a bad day? etc... In those cases, I've just given lip service, and then in the future, made sure to avoid that ranger's shift. Or come back month's later, and I bet they've forgotten you, or the ranger has moved on, etc... This is, of course, if there's no specific law or rule. Because even if I'm wrong, and you have the exact same guy in the future, with photo-memory-recall, who attempts give you further hassle for not having abided by his earlier booting, then you merely (this time) say that you've checked the rules, and found no prohibitions. He's welcome to correct you, or make a "policy" based on something he morphs to apply to you, if he wants. You can never stop that. Because let's face it: authorities in the field are given latitude to apply laws as they see fit, to fit a myriad of circumstances as may arise in the field.

For example: If there is a law that says "no nudity" on the beach. So lay385 goes out there with a single sock on. When the ranger tries to boot you, you say "but officer, I wasn't technically nude, since I had one sock on". You can see why law enforcement grants liberal powers of interpretation, to field officers, to interpret/morph things to fit/apply to a myriad of circumstances. So what I'm saying is, there really doesn't have to be a specific rule against metal detecting. If some officer/ranger was anal enough, they could just say you're "disturbing the peace" or something. There is simply no way to pre-empt this ahead of time. If this potential bothers an md'r, then perhaps they've chosen the wrong hobby. Ie.: like driving: sometimes, despite your best driving skills, there's going to be another motorist who's going to flip you off (because he thinks you did a sloppy lane change or whatever). So sometimes you have to be a little discreet, know how to give lip service, avoid busy-bodies, etc....