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We are thrilled that for the first time ever, the NJCM
Executive Summit and Jersey Seafood Fest will be held
at a commercial fishing dock: Viking Village in
Barnegat Light, New Jersey. While it will be hard to
beat the
Wild & Scenic
Maurice
River
as a site, what could be more appropriate than having
a seafood fest in one of the most important commercial
fishing ports in the mid-Atlantic?
In the plans, along with the usual lineup of
interesting and influential – and curt – speakers and
an array of the greatest “Jersey Fresh” seafood
anywhere, will be guided tours of the three types of
commercial fishing boats that dock at Viking Village,
a display of fresh seafood as it comes of the boats,
and a glimpse of the inner workings of a commercial
fishing dock.
Viking
Village
was started in the 1920s to support the local pound
net fisheries. Since then the pound nets have
completely disappeared from local waters, but up until
the 1960s they dotted our coastline. Supported by
massive pilings driven into the seafloor off our
beaches, a cleverly arranged array of net “leaders”
funneled fish into a holding area where they were
trapped until being removed by the fishermen. This is
a form of fishing that’s almost extinct today but in
the past provided much of our fresh seafood. In recent
years pound nets have only been used in our estuaries,
and to a very limited extent.
The ocean pound nets at
Viking
Village
have been replaced with scallop dredges, pelagic
longlines and gillnets. Each is fished from boats
designed specifically for that particular gear type,
each targets a particular species or group of species,
and each requires a specific set of skills for the
fishermen employing it.
Because of particularly favorable environmental
conditions for sea scallops and as a result of a long
and arduous management process, sea scallops are now
the most valuable catch landed at Barnegat Light. Sea
scallop boats are large, from seventy feet on up, and
are extremely seaworthy, sometimes having to take
trips covering thousands of miles and taking two or
three weeks. They tow large dredges, at least 12 feet
wide and usually one from each side, on productive
scallop bottom. Periodically the dredges are hauled
aboard and the catch is sorted on deck. The unwanted
fish and shellfish that are landed are returned to the
sea, and the crew removes the scallop meats from the
shells in a process called shucking. Packed in
40-pound muslin bags, the scallops are placed in the
hold and covered with flaked ice, maintaining their
ocean fresh quality for the duration of the trip.
Dealing with heavy dredges that are often loaded with
scallops, these vessels have powerful winches and
their decks are crisscrossed with thick cables.
The smallest boats at
Viking
Village
are the gillnetters, ranging from 30 to 50 feet or so
in length. They usually have a crew of two or three
and make short local trips, returning to Viking
Village every day. Depending on the targeted species,
a gillnetter will use any of several nets, varying in
mesh size, in depth and in length. Gillnets are set
off the stern of the boat so that they intercept the
targeted species, generally monkfish, bluefish,
weakfish or menhaden/mackerel. The first three are for
human consumption, menhaden and mackerel are for bait
for recreational fishermen. After setting the net and
allowing it to “fish” for a time that varies depending
on the targeted species and other factors, it’s hauled
back on board and the fish are picked from the net.
Any bycatch is released from the net and the catch is
immediately placed in an ice slurry bath to maintain
quality. Hydraulics power the haulers that retrieve
and the drums that store the nets.
The other commercial fishing vessels sailing out of
Barnegat Light are the pelagic longliners. In this
fishery, which was popularized in Sebastian Junger’s
1997 bestseller and the hit movie The Perfect Storm,
long main lines, with hooks suspended from them at
intervals in the neighborhood of 150 feet, are strung
between floats, allowed to fish for several hours and
then retrieved by large, hydraulically powered reels.
The targeted fish – swordfish and the various species
of tuna – are brought aboard, immediately butchered
and packed in ice in the hold for the duration of the
trip. Unwanted species are released at the side of the
boat.
Each of these fisheries produces the highest quality
product. In no case do the fish or shellfish remain
uniced on board for an extended period of time. When
the boat lands at
Viking
Village,
the seafood is offloaded and immediately placed in a
refrigerated truck or in one of several refrigerated
holding areas for later shipping. The goal is to get
it from the boat to the customer within 24 hours. Like
other commercial fishing ports in New Jersey, quality
is of the essence.
Each of these fisheries is highly selective, catching
as high a percentage as possible of the targeted
species and avoiding others.
Scallop dredges are equipped with a large mesh netting
“twine top” that allows fish that inadvertently get
into the dredge to swim up and out. The dredge “bag”
is built from steel rings. The diameter of the rings,
which determines the size of the scallops that are
caught, is carefully regulated, as is a chain excluder
spread across the mouth of the dredge where/when sea
turtles are present.
The size of a gillnet’s mesh, and the fisherman's
knowledge of the behavior of targeted species,
guarantees that bycatch will be low. Minimum mesh
sizes - mandated in the management plans for each
species - range from four to twelve inches. Smaller
fish usually swim through the mesh. Even when smaller
fish or non-targeted species are caught, regular
tending of the net by the fishermen ensures that most
of them are released alive.
The domestic pelagic longline fleet on the East coast
has led the world in developing tools and techniques
to minimize bycatch. The gear is designed and operated
to avoid any but the targeted species and to minimize
damage to bycatch that is taken. For example, the use
of circle hooks to minimize injury is mandated.
Pelagic longline fishermen in the United States are
also required to be certified in the proper handling
of sea turtle bycatch, and the techniques they
developed are now being adopted by other nations with
pelagic longline fleets.
Remember that local seafood is fresher by miles,
sometimes thousands of miles. Viking Village and the
docks in Cape May, Point Pleasant and Belford, are
there to get it to you first, and with
state-of-the-art technology that treats the seafood
and the environment the way they should be treated.
Welcome to
Viking
Village. |
