PAWLEYS ISLAND — For the past six years Brian Jallema's family has made a summer trip from their Indiana home to Georgetown County.
Much of their two-week vacation is spent surf fishing.
“That’s our draw," he said. It "is fishing in the ocean. We don’t have any saltwater around us, so that’s why we come around here."
But for many tourists and locals, plans for casting a line may have to change if county leaders approve a summertime ban on fishing near the beach.
County Council on June 24 voted in favor of an ordinance that would restrict summertime bait and surf fishing on public beaches. The ordinance, which needs one more favorable vote to pass, would make surf fishing from beaches illegal between the hours of 7:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. from May 1 to Sept. 30.
The ordinance was originally created to prohibit individuals and companies from actively fishing for sharks, County Council Chairman Clint Elliott said. The intent was to reduce the risk of injury to beachgoers.
Most anglers surf fish early in the morning and pack up once beaches start to get crowded, he said, but some people don’t.
“You don't want to hook a little kid in the foot, or an adult, or, you know, cause anybody any harm,” Elliott said.
Since word spread about the potential ban, many residents have pushed back against the ordinance, calling it too restrictive. Elliott said the county plans to tweak the wording of the ordinance to make its intent more clear. That could include changing or removing the restrictive hours, but Elliott said nothing has been decided.
County officials plan to meet with stakeholders and the S.C. Department of Natural Resources to discuss the ordinance and try to craft a policy that balances the interests of fishermen with public safety concerns, Elliott said.
"We're trying to get a happy compromise to protect the community, but also kind of minimize the blowback on it (the ordinance)," he said.
The ordinance would not apply to Huntington Beach State Park or the Town of Pawleys Island, which has its own fishing rules, said county spokeswoman Jackie Broach.
Neighboring Horry County has an ordinance that prohibits intentionally catching sharks from piers, beaches or any other coastal waters within one mile of the beach. The ordinance states that fishing from piers or beaches in a manner that presents an "unsafe condition" to beachgoers is illegal, and that anyone who surf fishes must obtain a valid South Carolina surf fishing license. It doesn’t include any restrictions on when surf fishing is allowed.
On the morning of June 26, Mickey Sweeney stood on the shore in the Pawleys Island area, gripping a fishing pole in front of him. He’d accidentally hooked a small, juvenile shark. He admired it for a moment before releasing it back into the waves.
Sweeney lives in Murrells Inlet. He said his fishing routine won’t change much if the proposed ordinance passes, except for when he takes his grandchildren fishing a few times a year. He usually arrives at the beach around 4 a.m. and is packed up by 8 a.m.
“I don’t want to see anybody be told, 'No,'" he said. "Myself, it won’t affect me."
Restricting fishing on heavily populated stretches of the beach or having designated fishing areas could be better solutions than what the county has proposed, he said.