"Wildlife education and interpretation" are allowed.

Well, when I'm sitting on my boat in F cove, looking at all the trees, bushes and seagulls,(wildlife) that's my interpretation of happiness.

Does that count?

F cove is a big party spot and I've seen drunkin boaters in there. When they leave they are a danger to anyone out on that water. Never mind it's a refuge, someone can can hurt or killed. I wonder if anyone in that cove ever call marine police to report drunkin boaters? If not you should be. It may be your own life you save... Lets face it folks, that river and bay is a mad house in the summer and the party spot "F cove" is part of the problem.

Federal law allows access for hunting,fishing photography etc. So every boat owner simply needs to have a fishing pole or a camera when they enter.

What a slow news week. I wana hear more about birdshell!

brave lady. that area of the bay is a mess. it needs to clean up this is a good start

Sounds like Rettig is more concerned about being sued if someone is hurt than actually doing her job. Maybe she should be fired and put someone in there who knows what they are doing. To close this off after so many years without having done any studies to see if the boaters are causing any harm is a complete sham. Rettig needs to go. Where are our Congressman when needed.

I don't think people understand the ramifications of this...next it will be Tice's as they have been researching the damage boaters are doing to the seagrasses...mark my words...pretty soon it will be "no leaving the actual intercoastal and channels"

New spot this summer. Applegate Cove. It's between inter coastal channel markers 24 & 26, to the west. Check out Applegate cove on Facebook.

All of the folks who are AGAINST this closure - please join our Facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/FightClosingFCove

Good! Keep it closed. The Jersey Shore wanabes and juice heads will have to go elsewhere.

so you can hunt and kill the wildlife but your trying to save the wildlife??

Like a lot of things, a few ruined it for many. Too many BENNIES. Find a spot in Jersey City or Hoboken.

It just seems kind of odd that F-cove has been there 50 plus years? Now all of a sudden it can't be used at the same time that the new " Brick Township Park" formally Traders Cove is being developed !

Land of the free...... What a joke !!!!

Join me at treasuer island! I have many fond memories of the f-cove and hope that one day it will reopen.......what about if we beach up along the banks right outside the cove entrance? Or maybe Cattus island park beach? lets see how they like all of us there.

So you won't open F-Cove for 2012? I bet we as a township can get together and do just that. How? Go over Rettigs head. She has to have a boss and if he/she doesn't do it, then they have a boss too. People just don't lay down and die, start calling, emailing, snail mailing. We will get that cove open and with a little luck, get it turned over to the township, the Feds have no business owning it or having jurisdiction over it either. Rettig is afraid of being sued, OK there has to be something to sue her for, for closing F-Cove. There's a lot of smart people living in this town, lets do this! Find the loop hole people!

Let me get this straight. In an effort to save wildlife, boating is prohibited. But you can hunt and fish there?

Resident.....bars have liquor licenses and the responsibility to flag people.....Fcove does not

Last time I was this past summer....there were beer cans / trash everywhere . And some guy floating in the middle drinking a beer, not a care in the world....and almost got ran over by a boat!!!! I do like going there once and awhile, but it's just not safe! They are basically grounded them for the summer , hopefully teaching them a lesson.

Sad...Big Brother strikes again. At some point in time, wildlife will have more legal rights than us humans...and judging by what this Federal representative says, that day is right around the corner.

While the Government's line of thinking may work in the heartland of America where they protect certain species on tracts of land that encompass thousands of acres away from large areas of our population, you need a different approach along the coastlines where the population is considerably more dense...and judging by her comments they obviously don't have a clear cut plan other than to say they'll feel their way through it. No doubt this study coming this Fall will take FOREVER to the point most will forget about it because they'll throw grant money out to some University to drag this on and on and on....

Judging by these results, I wonder if I can marry a Whooping Crane so I can get a low interest Federal loan to open a new business?

Agreed,resident .

Look up NJ Easement laws (Easement by Prescription) you may have something there.

For years Brick and all ocean towns business have made large amounts of money and that helps them survive and now your saying we want one area to close hummm ..what about the bars that stay opened till 1 a.m. and all those folks drive home sober ??? What I'm saying the drinking problem's are all over and we look at just certain areas to post "theres a problem there "..open your eyes ..and what about the pill problem thats hitting our schools by storm...??

I was at the hearing last night. I asked several question with fact base points and I was told that she could not answer the question at this time but if I would contact her department that all my questions would be answered. I sent several emails this morning. Let see how long it takes them to get back to me. I'm guessing they will get lost. One positive out come. The entire Brick counsel was supporting not to close the cove!

I wonder who started calling it F Cove? It's not a cove at all. It's man made Lagoons.

This isn't going to stop the"typical boaters" whatever that means, besides being envious.. Its not going to stop partying in the bay, the roudiness etc.. In fact, its going to force us to find a shallow area in the bay to "get naked" and party. I hope when you drive or should I say, when you are (stuck in traffic)on the mantoloking bridge you get a glimpse of me and my white ass clear as day, cause you will, you bunch of jealous, poor, pathetic residents of Brick.

I said I will be laying out on my boat..

Get the Fed the f_ck out of Brick!

And since you bring up sea nettles, its a fact that they are in our bays from "run-off" of pesticides and fertilizer.. I wonder how many on the anti-f-cove supporters care about the bay and wild life when they fertilize their lawns? Sickening.. Or why don't you just blame the activity in the f-cove for all the problems? Jack asses.

I really really wish i would have thought to bring up the sea nettles/jelly fish and ask her what they WERE doing about it. (got tongue tied up there as i've never stood before a town council) Seems to me you go after some of the MAJOR problems first...F Cove does not come across as a major baywide issue at this time. The jelly fish problem IS. have you seen the size of the ones floating in to our lagoons right now, as big as man o wars. I think that issue should be paramount, talk about taking away tourism dollars...THAT is what SHE should be focusing on.

Look up F cove on YouTube and tell me that everyone there is there to just enjoy nature. We made our bed now we can sleep in it.

@Daniel Nee: Birdsall is the right name, yes.. So you dont think the biggest engineering company that is hired by brick township being involved in making bogus campaign contribution isnt news? Arent you suppose to be reporting for brick township? Maybe if you weren't so politically strong armed on what to say; when to say it, you wouldnt be worried reporting more on the story. Birdshall is being investigated by the attorney general's office and you totally went left wing on us and totally didnt report the facts.

LETS GO RANGERS!!!!!!

Dan you need to report more on birdsall and what involvement they had doing business with brick township. I dont know what your waiting for or who's telling you not to report the news, but its pretty obvious. I'm sure most of the patch members who read brick news didnt know they were the engineering firm that dealt business with brick and the ones who did know would like to know what involvement brick had contributing to their campaign donations. Why wasnt contributions posted as to how much they gave acropolis for his campaign or why they made multiple $299.00 donations so they didnt have to report anything? This is the news brick needs to know. No one cares about a bunch of mad bennys from static island that cant party anymore on their multi million dollar lagoons.

Dan, the tax payers need to know how much birdsall gave acropolis for the election. Is this how acropolis was able to pay for all those fancy wood signs all around the town? Dan i know birdshall is a middlesex county company, but they did businees with brick. This isnt similar and good news to let he tax payers know about? Aww sad that acropolis is puling the "oh sheit dan (delete that post) handle"

Occupy F-Cove!!!

So we can hunt and fish. Let's everyone go MDW...hunt, fish, and kill every animal there. When no wildlife is left to protect, what's the point of enforcement?

Well Resident. Being I've been sober nearly 20 yrs closing the bars wouldn't bother me one bit. But of course that won't happen. People need to be responsible for them selves like I try although I'm no where near perfect. This story is about F-cove and nothing else. As it goes a few bad apple do spoil the bunch. It only takes one for a tragedy to happen, y'all should of been policing yourselves. I presume your not a bad apple and am sorry you lost your spot. As a reply to some others bout bringing a gun to the cove to hunt LOL. There's no open hunting season during those months. Don't get caught by the Warden cause then you'll know trouble real quick. As someone posted below. "We made our bed now we have to sleep in it" As another poster said check out youtube for F-cove. Think I'm gonna ck Youtube, I bebeive I already know what I'll see. Good luck and be safe where ever you end up. Things go bad in seconds... On the water or off...

I love the whole irony of the situation. She wants to protect the environment and wildlife, however we might be allowed back in there someday as long as you promise to kill some animals by hunting or fishing.

YouTube says it all.

@Jhill: It's not the FBI its the Attorney General's Office.. This is why dan needs to report the story more so left wing advocates who dont know what their talking about gets an education like you deserve.

Hey youtube f..cove ..no great lose to me ..they will find another spot to party ,drink,dance ..no biggie

I have never been to F Cove nor really intend to. But I have a ton of family & friends that have frequented the area for years. Yes , I guess there is a large chunk of people (mostly young seasonals) who disrespect the space. Why can't we find a way to just deal w/ THAT???? How does this woman (who seems to keep having circular conversations w/ herself) keep saying its hazardous to the wildlife? It was originally created for real estate development!!!!! I assure you that would have caused far more damage to the entire county!!!!

Hello all. Craig here. If anyone attended the Brick township meeting, I was the first to speak in the Q&A session.

We are planning on suing Fish and Wildlife in Federal Court in the next couple of weeks.

We will be setting up a dedicated web site as soon as possible to keep everyone informed of our progress.

Please stay tuned!

We have not yet begun to fight. We have all lost a big part of our freedom due to this unilateral power grab by 2 unelected federal officials (specifically Virginia Rettig and her as-yet-unnamed solicitor).

This action can not, and will not, go unchallenged.

Virginia Rettig has 47,800 acres to manage in her region of the Edwin B. Forsythe refuge (in just Ocean and Atlantic counties). The F-Cove and T-Cove together comprise less than 1/10th of 1% of the refuge.

I'll leave it there for now. More information will be posted ASAP!

a question if i may. just what is suing going to do. As Retig said, F Cove is a Wildlife Reserve owned/managed by Dept of Fish and Game and was never really opened to partying, underage drinking, trashing, and dangerous play. There is not one person who has gone into F Cove on a weekend in the summer and not witnessed at least 3 or the 4. what is there to sue? Its the effing lawyers that got this country into this mess by suing for everything and now the Dept of Fish and Game doesn't want to be held responsible for someone getting hurt. As much as i hate the thought we lost it, I understand why. Another point and i will preface this by saying i've had waverunners for almost 15 years and like to think i am reponsible however, going into T Cove to hang with some friends, watching all the IDIOTS come flying in on their wave runners racing, making wakes, spinning while they are within 200' of land in an area of no wakes probably had something to do with it to. I would always say to people on my boat, "that is what is going to close these places to us" and i'd yell at them but i'd get the finger or whatever....people make their beds i guess they have to lie in them too. Good luck suing the federal government.

Hello Lisa. I'll be brief but let me explain thusly:

The F-Cove and T-cove are closed because Virginia Rettig and her solicitor unilaterally determined that Fish & Wildlife have jurisdiction over the water that flows in and out of the F-Cove. This is a new legal position. The short version of how this legal determination came about is simply this (I am paraphrasing here): "Because we say so". It is the arguments they internally thought sufficient that we intend to challenge and have reversed.

I have spoken to Virginia Rettig. If nobody ever did anything in the F-Cove except pull in a power boat on a Tuesday pre-season afternoon to sit in silence and eat a sandwich on their own boat, that trespasser is harming wildlife and is to be arrested, fined, and possibly imprisoned. Her world view is incompatible with law abiding, nature loving, respectful motor boaters from entering the coves. Furthermore, she cannot envision said boater entering the coves with a paid season's pass with a boat hull registration regime and contractually agreed code of conduct.

I might point out to those of you who aren't on the same page with the local tax-paying residents who enjoy the coves in a respectful manner that once this federal power grab sets in, the coves will be off limits as long as the federal government exists. Notwithstanding the Mayan prediction of worldwide apocalypse, that pretty much means forever.

I gratefully accept your kind wish for good luck.

Thanks you fucken piece of shit for closing it. I hope the cove fucks u in the face u dumb bitch

Why not ban all boat traffic on the Barnegat Bay while we're at it?