LOWER TOWNSHIP, N.J. — August 16, 2013 — The next time Lund's Fisheries wants to land a particular species of fish while avoiding other species they aren't supposed to catch, a new high-tech system aboard the boats could point them in the right direction.
That's the promise of a system currently being installed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on all 12 vessels owned by Lund's Fisheries, as well as independent fishing boats docked locally.
Identifying fish locations is only one of the many benefits being touted for a system that has been used on boats in New England but never before in southern New Jersey.
"This is the first installation in New Jersey and in the Mid-Atlantic," said Wayne Reichle, whose family owns Lund's Fisheries.
"This is the future. It's something really needed by our industry and to give (NOAA) more real-time information to react to changing conditions in the ocean. It can hopefully make us more productive," Reichle said.
Water temperature, recorded electronically by sensors on the fishing gear and delivered to a laptop computer, is only one of the data points the system delivers. It's an important one. Fish are cold-blooded and water temperature happens to be the key feature in where they concentrate.