Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
TagsBY GINA G. SCALA
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
Sink, sank, sunk; could be used to describe the New Jersey sport fishing industry in the wake of a poor economy, escalating gas prices and catch limits.
“June and July were tough; there were a lot of people missing. I think the economy is holding people back,” Joe Bogan, Sr., the owner of a fishing excursion company, told CBS 2 News. “With the fuel price and bait prices up, it does cost more.”
The sport of saltwater fishing in the Garden State has been running a ground since 2007 according to federal stats of anglers and excursion trips leaving from the Jersey Shore, the Star Ledger reported.
"It’s tough living on the water," Capt. Rob Semkewyc, of the Sea Hunter, said. "Every year it gets tougher."
The National Marine Fisheries Service’s latest economic data show that New Jersey lost more than one of every 10 jobs industry-wide; $200 million in sales and $109 million to the state’s gross domestic product.
"Five years ago, you couldn’t get a space in a marina,” Thomas Fote, legislative operations manager for the Jersey Coast Anglers’ Association; a coop of more than 75 saltwater fishing clubs told the Star-Ledger. “There’s a lot of empty spaces in the marinas nowadays."
Since 2006, New Jersey’s saltwater excursions have loss roughly 1.9 million trips or about 27 percent of business, according to federal fishing data.
Brandon Muffley, chief of the Bureau of Marine Fisheries in the state’s Department of Environmental Sciences, told the Star Ledger while the numbers reveal fewer people are taking trips; there are still people fishing; "General outdoor activities like that have declined over the past five to 10 years."
To carve out a living, some sport fishing boat captains are repurposing their boats as sunset cruises; water taxis; for weddings or for burials at sea.
"When I bought my first boat in 1987, there were 26 party boats in Cape May County. Now there are 12 or 13," said Bob Rush, who takes people out on party cruises (he has a liquor license), dolphin watching and for burials at sea to supplement fishing trips on the 70-foot Sea Isle City-based Starfish, according to the Press of Atlantic City.
