SEABROOK — Raymond Smith has three passions: his children, the children he taught in his Seabrook classrooms for more than 30 years and fishing along Seabrook's harbor beach.
When practicing his third passion was severely limited by an amendment to the town codes restricting fishing from the shoreline for most of the daylight hours along town beaches, Smith took on a mission of changing the regulation in the organized, efficient manner one might expect from a retired math teacher.
Recently, Smith's actions were rewarded, as selectmen amended the town code, allowing Smith and others to fish Seabrook's inner harbor beach.
Fishing along Seabrook beaches is now permitted above the high water mark only from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. and from 30 minutes before sunrise to 8 a.m. But fishing on the beach below the high water mark is not restricted, allowing Smith and his other dedicated shore-fishing peers to set up their chairs, cast their lines and test their luck nearly every summer day.
N.H. Fish and Game allows fishing from boats, which can travel over land covered by high water, Smith explained to selectmen. Since erosion has caused most of Seabrook's inner harbor beach to be covered at high tide right up to the dune grass, that allows nearly all of the beach to be free for fishing, Smith said.
As for the prior concern that fishermen could injure beachgoers and children with their hooks, that's not a serious issue, Smith said. The inner harbor beach is rarely so packed with people that fishing would endanger them, he said. No children have been hooked by fishermen in the past 10 years he's been fishing regularly at the beach.
The only people who get entangled in fishhooks are usually fishermen themselves, he said with a smile.
The major danger to children at the beach is from broken glass left by careless beach visitors, he said. Smith proved his point by pouring out 27 pounds of broken glass he and his fellow fishermen have picked up at the beach.
Smith and his friends have not only cleaned broken glass off the beach, but patched up children's feet when they come in contact with broken glass.
Smith's tales recounted the beach's regular fishermen as unpaid protectors of its sands, children and even the fish, as they safeguard that none are taken illegally. During his testimony, Selectmen Bob Moore, Aboul Khan and Brendan Kelly smiled, obviously impressed with Smith's dedication to his town and its beaches, kids and fish.
"I have often gone down to visit Mr. Smith," Khan said. "When he catches (legal sized stripers), he gives them to other people."
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