David Fasulo > Quotes

“Every state has its own laws on this issue, but by law in Rhode Island, the public has the right to access the beach seaward of the mean high water mark (mean high tide is seaward of the seaweed line and where the beach gets wet on any given day).”
― David Fasulo, Sea Kayaking and Stand Up Paddling Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Long Island Sound

“If paddling in New York waters (Fishers Island Sound), the public trust doctrine is similar to Connecticut and Rhode Island. Essentially, the beach area seaward of the mean high-water mark (debris line) is public land.”
― David Fasulo, Sea Kayaking and Stand Up Paddling Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Long Island Sound

“While much of the Connecticut shore is privately owned, the coastal tidelands actually belong to all the people—not just in terms of our environmental and cultural heritage, but in a specific legal sense as well. Under the common law public trust doctrine, a body of law dating back to Roman times, coastal states (as sovereigns) hold the submerged lands and waters waterward of the mean high water line in trust for the public. The general public may freely use these intertidal and subtidal lands and waters, whether they are beach, rocky shore, or open water, for traditional public trust uses such as fishing, shellfishing, boating, sunbathing, or simply walking along the beach. In Connecticut, a line of state Supreme Court cases dating back to the earliest days of the republic confirms that in virtually every case private property ends at the mean high water line (the line on the shore established by the average of all high tides)”
― David Fasulo, Sea Kayaking and Stand Up Paddling Connecticut, Rhode Island, and the Long Island Sound