By Logan B. Anderson

DOVER — When Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control leaders presented their fiscal year 2023 budget request to the General Assembly’s Joint Finance Committee Monday, lawmakers sought to quell concerns about the state’s surf-fishing licensing program.

At about 10 a.m. on Feb. 1, DNREC began selling standard surf-fishing permits. By 1:35 p.m., the department had sold out. All 17,000 available surf-fishing licenses were gone. The department sold them in person and online.

From 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. DNREC sold 79 permits per minute. Department officials rebooted their sales system because the order taking software seemed, “sluggish,” according to DNREC Secretary Shawn M. Garvin.

From 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. the average sales went to 206 permits per minute.

“We ended up selling out at 1:35 p.m., 17,000 permits in just a little over three and a half hours,” Secretary Garvin said.

Of those 17,000 permits, about 80% were sold to Delawareans, with about 20% going to out-of-state residents. According to Secretary Garvin, with the Feb. 1 sale, there are now 23,000 vehicles with surf-fishing tags that can be used in the First State.

In 2019, the Delaware Parks and Recreation Advisory Council implemented a cap of 17,000 standard surf-fishing permits to be sold each year. Subsequently, DNREC’s Division of Parks and Recreation implemented a first-come, first-served policy for the sale of the tags.

Surf-fishing permits are issued for the calendar year, but some are valid for two years. They allow vehicles to access designated beaches at Cape Henlopen, Delaware Seashore and Fenwick Island state parks and Beach Plum Island Nature Preserve for the sole purpose of surf fishing.

A surf-fishing permit is valid only for two-axle vehicles that are licensed and registered to operate on public highways.

According to DNREC, the goal of these policies was to efficiently serve beachgoers and to prevent overcrowding of the state’s beaches.

“The one thing we do we know is unless we can annex land from Ocean City, Maryland, there is not any more beach for us to be had. If we really stack people in, we can get about 4,200 vehicles in and that’s not very comfortably. Our enforcement folks and others’ preference is around 1,800 to make it a safe, enjoyable experience,” Secretary Garvin said.

On Monday, some Joint Finance Committee members said they received complaints from constituents about how the sale was conducted and the cap. But the greatest concern was about a promise made by the General Assembly to firefighters.

“Last year, we passed a bill to allow first responders an option of either having a surf-fishing license or a park permit,” said Sen. Bruce Ennis, D-Smyrna.

According to Delaware law, volunteer firefighters, active volunteer EMTs or life members of volunteer fire departments are authorized a standard surf-fishing permit free of cost.

Secretary Garvin said firefighters who wanted surf-fishing tags will receive them. DNREC is working with the Delaware Volunteer Firefighters Association to correctly identify those people and get them a tag.

JFC Chairman Sen. Trey Paradee, D-Dover, called the situation a “debacle” Monday and urged DNREC to investigate other ways to manage access to beaches by vehicle.

“What we experienced this year, just simply can’t happen again,” Sen. Paradee said. “There’s going to have to be action and there’s going to have to be some creativity in determining exactly how we issue these permits in terms of the technology but also in terms of how we monitor the traffic on the beaches. I think our focus needs to be not so much on the number of permits that are issued each year but more on how many vehicles are actually on the beach on any given day and we need to do a better job of regulating that.”

Sen. Paradee said he expects a task force will soon be formed to probe this issue.

DNREC’s operating budget request submitted to the JFC Monday totaled $40,702,600. That number is about a quarter of the department’s total budget. It receives about $48 million from federal sources and raises about $103 million with fees and other charges for services, such surf-fishing tags.

Secretary Garvin said this year’s request is less than 1% greater than its current operating budget from the state. It includes creating new maintenance positions for some of Delaware’s parks and creating a new Environmental Justice Coordinator position. The new coordinator would work with communities to make decisions and establish policies to focus on environmental concerns.