Point Pleasant Beach Boaters Punished For Taking Too Many Fish

POINT PLEASANT BEACH – Police slapped summonses on boat operators in Point Pleasant Beach recently for taking too much fish, according to a release from the New Jersey Conservation Officers Association.

The incident happened on March 14 when authorities received information from New York regarding a New Jersey-based commercial fishing vessel they had observed approach a second vessel at-sea approximately five miles off the coast of New York, according to the release.

After studying the vessels’ tracks utilizing a monitoring system, New York and New Jersey police suspected the vessels met up to transfer fish from one vessel to the other.

Authorities inspected one vessel when it landed in Point Pleasant Beach and discovered the vessel possessed an overage of their New Jersey summer flounder by-catch limit, according to the release

Since the vessel previously landed a directed amount of summer flounder earlier in the week, the vessel was only allowed to land up to 200 pounds of by-catch, but possessed 253 pounds.

As authorities were inspecting the vessel in Point Pleasant Beach, investigators were able to contact the operator of the other vessel which landed in Belford, accoding to the release.

The operator provided authorities a written statement admitting that he had received his fish from the other vessel at-sea and then landed them in Belford.

Armed with this information, authorities confronted the operator of the Point Pleasant Beach vessel about the transfer of fish at-sea. The operator initially denied it, but eventually admitted to investigators that he gave the other vessel approximately 750 pounds of summer flounder since he had already landed his one legal trip for the week.

Authorities issued summonses to the Point Pleasant Beach vessel/operator for possessing summer flounder in excess of the daily trip limit and for failing to notify the department two hours priory.

Federal case referrals are pending on both vessels for the transfer at-sea and falsification of fishing vessel trip reports.