{"id":10043,"date":"2021-11-12T03:21:48","date_gmt":"2021-11-12T08:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/?p=10043"},"modified":"2021-11-12T03:23:16","modified_gmt":"2021-11-12T08:23:16","slug":"seaside-heights-to-consider-ban-on-feeding-wildlife-to-stem-water-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/2021\/11\/seaside-heights-to-consider-ban-on-feeding-wildlife-to-stem-water-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Seaside Heights to Consider Ban on Feeding Wildlife to Stem Water Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Seagulls<\/a>

Seagulls targeting a trash can on a New Jersey beach. (Photo: Jackie\/Flickr)<\/p><\/div>\n

Seaside Heights officials are considering enacting a prohibition on the feeding of wildlife in the borough over concerns that bird droppings in some areas of town are contributing to the pollution of waterways and bay beach closures.<\/p>\n

The borough council discussed the possibility of introducing an ordinance during a work session meeting before last week\u2019s regular meeting of the mayor and council. An ordinance is being drafted and may be considered for introduction at an upcoming meeting. Mayor Anthony Vaz said the discussion was spurred by concerns from both officials and residents that overfeeding of wildlife has led to some areas \u2013 especially along the borough\u2019s bayfront \u2013 becoming frequently coated with bird feces that can make its way into Barnegat Bay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has an effect on us, even beyond the environmental concerns,\u201d said Vaz. \u201cEvery year, a bay beach closes for a day. Then the headline says, \u2018Seaside Heights beach closed,\u2019 but it\u2019s not the ocean, it\u2019s the bay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do they close?\u201d the mayor asked rhetorically. \u201cIt\u2019s always bacteria, and it\u2019s generally the feces from the wildlife. It\u2019s usually only one day, but it has an impact, and we want our waters and our bay beach to be clean and healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Swans<\/a>

Swans congregate around a dock. (Photo: Daniel Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Then there is the matter of birds leaving dropping behind that get on people\u2019s shoes or even their feet along the bayfront, as well as attracting large swarms of birds to neighborhoods during large feedings, leading to household trash being strewn about as well as waste left on vehicles and homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could do it just from a public standpoint \u2013 you can\u2019t feed wildlife on public property that we own \u2013 but we\u2019re looking at an ordinance to establish that you can\u2019t feed wildlife on private property as well,\u201d Vaz said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to try to stop this because allowing it only encourages it,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe know people mean well and want to do something good, but they might not understand what they\u2019re doing to their neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seaside Heights officials are considering enacting a prohibition on the feeding of wildlife in the borough over concerns that bird droppings in some areas of town are contributing to the pollution of waterways and bay beach closures. The borough council discussed the possibility of introducing an ordinance during a work session meeting before last week\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1747,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[1959,20,2001],"class_list":["post-10043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seaside-government","category-seaside-heights","tag-featured","tag-seaside-heights-nj-news","tag-wildlife-feeding"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/189207740_8ee833f4c4_o.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgsn9q-2BZ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/lavallette-seaside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}