Point Pleasant Beach Archives

NEW JERSEY: DEP Commissioner Martin, Rep. Pallone to lead fish rally at Fishermen’s Supply

January 26, 2017 — A rally against the proposed cuts to the summer flounder harvest is planned for this Friday morning in the parking lot of Fishermen’s Supply in Point Pleasant Beach.

Along with members of the fishing community, the commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Protection Bob Martin and U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) will lead the rally and speak in opposition to the harvest reduction.

Both Martin and Pallone have been critical of the Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission and the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management for their proposed drastic cuts to the summer flounder harvest.

Pallone has been outspoken against the science used to count fish landings and stock biomass that has led those management bodies to conclude that anglers overfished their quota last year and the biomass of summer flounder is shrinking.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Fishing crew rescued from sinking boat off NJ coast

August 16, 2016 — POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. — Early Monday, before the sun was up, the Lady Gertrude was about 35 to 40 miles southeast of Sandy Hook in a fishing ground called the Chicken Canyon when she started to take on water.

The canyon is a deep depression on the ocean floor and a ground known for scallops — what the Lady Gertrude, a 78-foot commercial fishing vessel from Point Pleasant Beach, was after when she left Manasquan Inlet on Sunday night.

By 2 a.m. though, something had gone wrong as the boat’s hull started filling with water.

Capt. Jim Lovgren was far away on the boat Shadowfax, towing his nets for fluke two miles off the beach when he heard the Gertrude’s first emergency call over the VHF radio. His heart dropped into his stomach. His 34-year old son Keith Lovgren was on the boat.

“I’m worried, but I do know my son’s been through this before and he knows what to do,” said Lovgren, whose boat Viking sunk in 2012 with both him and his two sons on board.

They all made it home safe that day. Keith, who was back at his Brick home by Monday afternoon, made it home safe this time, too.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Rebirth of the artificial reef program

August 10, 2016 — A little before 8 a.m. a small group of fishermen resumed a ritual that was nearly lost due to a territorial war.

They formed their boats into a semi-circle two miles off the coast of Point Pleasant Beach to watch a 65-foot former New York Harbor crew boat be purposely sunk on a reef.

It was a perfect morning to do it.

The ocean Tuesday was as smooth as glass and visibility was such that the pastel colors of boardwalk amusements on shore and the tops of inland water towers could be discerned from the distance.

“Once she fills up with water she’s going to go down pretty quickly. The only question is, will she go bow up or transom up?” said Ken Warchal, a trustee of the Manasquan River Marlin and Tuna Club, the sport fishing club that purchased the boat.

The club was sinking the boat in the name of the late Jack Murray, a former club president and champion of marine conservation who served on various fishery management bodies. The goal is to have a site in his honor teeming with fish for anglers to catch.

“We’ll probably have a contest to see who can catch the first fish on it,” said Warchal, who expects black sea bass, tautog and summer flounder will inhabit the locale within a year.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

Jersey Shore Fishing: Ray Bogan Appointed an ICCAT Commissioner

February 25, 2016 — Ray Bogan, who chose the law as his profession, rather than joining the famed family party boat business in Brielle, has been appointed as the U.S. recreational fishing commissioner to the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

Ray Bogan, whose law office is in Point Pleasant Beach and is also a captain, has been involved for many years in all aspects of fisheries conservation. He’s well-qualified to handle the new position as he’s been monitoring ICCAT activities for decades. In some cases, the overfishing of tunas in Europe and Africa may also impact local abundance. Though the title implies that ICCAT only manages tunas, they also develop conservation plans for other highly migratory fisheries. Since most of the rest of the world is only concerned with commercial fishing, ICCAT had to be dragged into protecting species with lesser commercial value. After being appointed to the first Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council, I became that council’s representative to the Southeast Council in establishing tuna regulations within our then new 200-mile limit before the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) later took over highly migratory species management. At one meeting, an U.S. marine biologist said ICCAT wouldn’t do anything to conserve blue marlin until there were only two left – and both were males!

It’s not quite that bad now, but recreational fishing still takes a back seat at ICCAT. The bluefin tuna “conservation” regulations result in such minimal quotas for school bluefins that the cost of pursuing that recreational fishery can hardly be justified, while spawning giants are targeted with high commercial daily boat limits in order to fill quotas.

Read the full story at NJ.com

Fishing groups ask court to halt Atlantic Ocean seismic testing

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. (AP) — July 1, 2015 — Five fishing groups are asking a federal court to stop a research program that blasts the ocean floor with sound waves, arguing it’s disturbing marine life off the coast of New Jersey.

The lawsuit filed Friday seeks a halt to the program being carried out by Rutgers University, the University of Texas and the National Science Foundation.

The project uses sound waves to study sediment on the ocean floor dating back 60 million years to see how sea level rise has changed the coastline, and better plan for storms like Superstorm Sandy.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at My9 New Jersey