It has been an active summer for sharks in Brevard County.

At least four attacks have occurred in the last month, and one town is trying to keep sharks away as best it can.

The Melbourne Beach Town Commission this week approved a resolution to discourage shark fishing and chumming off the coast.

Mayor Jim Simmons said several out-of-town anglers dump fish blood and guts into the ocean to attract sharks to the coast. And they're doing it next to swimmers and surfers.

"I was down at the beach and saw the shark fishermen putting their bait right next to people surfing," Simmons said. "They had a group of kids that were swimming right next to them. And we asked them to move, and they said they weren't moving because they had their rights, they didn't have to move, and this is where they wanted to fish."

The fishermen do have their rights to fish for sharks. That much is true.

Officials in the town of Melbourne Beach don't have any authority to restrict shark fishing locations. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is the only agency that can regulate fishing in state waters.

David White, from Palm Bay, likes to catch sharks off the Melbourne Beach coast.

"You can't stop shark fishing in general because you can't go out fishing and say, 'I want to fish for shark or I want to fish for that,'" White said. "You don't know what's going to hit your line."

Simmons said he only has a problem with people who are actively trying to attract sharks to the beach. He's afraid people will get bit.

"People fish, and I have no problem with people fishing," Simmons said. "It's just, why do they want to attract sharks to an area that we primarily know as a bathing beach?"

Simmons plans to present the town's resolution to the FWC at its quarterly meeting next month in Kissimmee.