The Bait Shop Behind Margate's Turtle Release Almost Disappeared Last Year
Sunday afternoon on Amherst Avenue, somewhere around 1 p.m., a crowd will gather at a modest dock behind a bait-and-tackle shop to watch something that has nothing to do with crafts, funnel cakes, or the parade going by two blocks over. Kids will climb aboard a boat called the Captain Robin, hold a small terrapin turtle they may have found in their own yard months earlier, and release it back into the bay. It is one of the quieter moments of Margate Fall Funfest by the Bay, now in its 25th year, and it happens at Scott's Dock every single time. What most people watching don't know is that a year ago, the dock itself was the thing in danger of not making it.
Scott's Dock has been running out of the same stretch of the Marina District since 1959, a family marina now in its third generation. Longtime residents may still call it Ray Scott's Dock, after the founder. His grandson, Ray Scott Bonner, runs it today. It rents pontoons and kayaks, takes anglers out at 6 a.m., and does the unglamorous work that keeps a working bay functional: repairing osprey platforms, launching the annual Rubber Duck Regatta, and serving as the drop-off point whenever someone finds a stray baby terrapin and doesn't know what to do with it.
That last part is what almost got complicated. In May of last year, the dock's lease on a piece of land across the street from its main operation, a 210-by-109-foot lot at 201 N. Benson Ave., came up for renewal. City procedure called for the Board of Commissioners to consider putting the lease out for public bid rather than simply renewing it. For a business that had occupied the same spot for more than 70 years, that was not a small technicality.
Residents showed up to the May 1 meeting to say so directly. Sustainable Margate's green team chairman, Steve Jasiecki, told commissioners what the dock actually does for the town beyond boat rentals.
"I do osprey nest repairs off his dock and his dock is essential to counting osprey chicks. It's a good kayak launch for the Rubber Duck Regatta and bay cleanups, and they provide the Wetlands Wonderland program during the Fall Funfest."
Margate Business Association president Ed Berger called the turnout gratifying. A neighbor described the dock as a masterpiece for the city. Former fire chief Tony Tabasso, who said he'd known the Scott family for years, vouched for their character in front of the board. Ray Scott Bonner told commissioners his family had never asked the city for anything in its history there and asked to be allowed to continue it.
The lease held. Scott's Dock is still operating in 2026, still renting boats, and still hosting Wetlands Wonderland at this year's Funfest, exactly as it has for years. But the fact that any of this required a public meeting is worth sitting with if you live within walking distance of that dock and have never thought about who keeps it running.
The turtle release is the photogenic part, but Scott's Dock runs the whole booth, and it's more of an education station than a festival attraction. This year's setup includes:
The terrapins are the through-line. When someone finds a baby turtle in their yard or on the street, the current advice locally has been to bring it to Scott's Dock, where it's cared for until it's large enough to survive predators in open water. Funfest weekend is when that cycle closes, with the release happening off the Captain Robin in the back bay behind the dock.
It's easy to think of Fall Funfest as simply the town's biggest weekend, the one with 110-plus booths, ten bands on the Amherst Avenue main stage, and a parade led by Miss New Jersey. That's all real. But the festival was started in 1998 by Margate Business Association founder Joseph Tozzi with a specific job to do: give local businesses a boost in the shoulder season, after the summer crowds thin out and before the town settles into its quieter winter rhythm.
Scott's Dock is close to a textbook example of the kind of business that job description was written for. It isn't a seasonal pop-up. It's been open since Eisenhower was president, and its slow months are exactly the months Funfest is built to fill with foot traffic. The dock's near-miss with its lease last year is a reminder that the businesses Funfest was designed to support aren't guaranteed to still be there. They stay because people who live here decide, in person, that they should.
None of this means Funfest is only worth attending for the marine biology. Saturday and Sunday both run the full schedule, food booths from BBQ to boba, a beer garden, and the Tito's Handmade Vodka tent that's become as much a fixture as the crafts. Sunday at 1 p.m., Steve & Cookie's hosts the Dan Gottlieb Memorial Dog Show at 9700 Amherst Ave. near Monroe Avenue, with prizes for talent, costume, and appearance and proceeds going to the Humane Society of Ocean City and NJ Aid for Animals. Free jitney shuttles run along Ventnor and Amherst Avenues all weekend for anyone who'd rather not deal with parking near the bayfront.
But if you find yourself walking past the Marina District this weekend and see a small crowd gathered near a modest dock behind a bait shop, that's not overflow from the main event. That's the point of it.
If you've lived downbeach long enough to remember bringing a stray turtle to Scott's Dock yourself, or you're the kind of neighbor who shows up to a commissioners meeting when something worth keeping is on the agenda, Holly Garber would like to hear what else about this stretch of Margate deserves that kind of attention.
Whether you are preparing to sell, searching for your next home, planning a renovation, or exploring an investment opportunity, I welcome a confidential conversation about your goals.
