The pilot of an experimental aircraft reported unknowingly descending below national seashore altitu...

Attributes
ACN	1348541
Time
Date	201604
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Amateur/Home Built/Experimental
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 50 Flight Crew Total 1300 Flight Crew Type 900
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural FAR

Narrative:

I was flying a personal recreational flight alone in my experimental aircraft over the [shoreline]. I saw a stunning 'infinite stretch' of miles and miles of continuous [sea animals] on the beach shore from a half mile away. Excited to [view] this amazing never-seen before sight; I descended to about 250 ft over water and then came very close to the shore. A few times during this I turned inward over the beach and then back over water. [Later; I discovered] that I was in violation of the national seashore altitude requirements; and after checking the fine print of the chart; it turns out that a little dotted line has 2000 ft limits! The bottom line is that I had absolutely no plans beforehand to fly that close to the shore and over the beach edge of this uninhabited area; and did so without being aware of any specific limitations.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: The pilot of an experimental aircraft reported unknowingly descending below National Seashore altitude restrictions while observing sea life.

Narrative: I was flying a personal recreational flight alone in my Experimental aircraft over the [shoreline]. I saw a stunning 'infinite stretch' of miles and miles of continuous [sea animals] on the beach shore from a half mile away. Excited to [view] this amazing never-seen before sight; I descended to about 250 ft over water and then came very close to the shore. A few times during this I turned inward over the beach and then back over water. [Later; I discovered] that I was in violation of the National Seashore altitude requirements; and after checking the fine print of the chart; it turns out that a little dotted line has 2000 ft limits! The bottom line is that I had absolutely no plans beforehand to fly that close to the shore and over the beach edge of this uninhabited area; and did so without being aware of any specific limitations.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

The pilot of an experimental aircraft reported unknowingly descending below national seashore altitude restrictions while observing sea life.