New Jersey Scuba Diving

SHIP SCUTTLED TO CREATE 5th FISHING REEF

By Marion Wiessner
New York Times
April 14, 1985

In a continuing program designed to improve sport and commercial fishing along New Jersey's 125 miles of coastline and generate more revenue from it, the state's Department of Environmental Protection has added a fifth artificial reef. According to the department, $750 million was generated last year from offshore fishing.

The program is conducted by the department's Bureau of Marine Fisheries, which, in the last two years, has created four other artificial reefs, off Manasquan, Ocean City, Harvey Cedars and Spray Beach. The bureau is an arm of the environmental agency's Division of Fish, Game and Wildlife.

On March 29, a freighter, the Pauline Marie, was sunk 12 miles off Absecon Inlet to begin the fifth artificial reef. As several boatloads of observers watched, three charges blew holes in the freighter's stern and bow. The vessel rapidly listed to starboard and disappeared. She is now in 95 feet of water.

The scuttling was a cooperative effort of the state division, Seacoast Products Inc. of Port Monmouth and The Fisherman, a magazine published in Point Pleasant. Seacoast Products, which until October 1983 operated a menhaden processing plant on Raritan Bay, donated the freighter. (Menhaden, a member of the herring family, is ground and used as bait or for making oil and fertilizer.)

Brian Harris, a consulting engineer for Seacoast's parent company, Hanson Industries of Iselin, said that the vessel, originally outfitted with a heavy-lift mast and booms, had probably been used to handle missiles and targets for the Army. After World War II, a Portuguese family bought the ship to carry wine and cheese from Lisbon to New Bedford, Mass. Seacoast then bought the freighter to convert her into a menhaden fishing vessel, ''but it was about 20 feet too short * for our purposes,'' Mr. Harris said.

The total cost of cleaning, towing and scuttling was $12,000, ** with the state paying $7,000 and The Fisherman the balance. All loose materials and batteries were removed, fuel and lubricants were drained or steam-cleaned from tanks, generators, engines and other equipment, and the mast, stack and part of the wheelhouse were cut down and fastened to the ship. Peter Barrett, the magazine's senior editor, said the funds had been raised through private donations and proceeds from fishing tournaments. ''It's our way of putting something back into the sport,'' he said.

William Figley, a state fisheries biologist and coordinator of the reef projects, said that the reefs had quickly attracted a variety of fish. ''About four weeks after we dropped tires off Spray Beach,'' he said, ''we dived on the reef site and found thousands of sea bass, along with some porgies and cunner." (Spray Beach is in Ocean County.)

''Basically, the ocean bottom out to the Continental Shelf is low, undulating sand dunes. There is lots of food on the bottom, such as clams and worms, but the relatively flat bottom is not as productive as a rocky bottom.

''The purpose of the reefs is to create habitat for fish and shellfish and to provide a place to go fishing.''

The Pauline Marie is at the inshore edge of what is known as The Lobster Hole.

* "Bunker boats" carry two large (~40ft.) aluminum motor skiffs to set out the nets. These require a lot of space - see Reedville. This reason doesn't really hold water, as the FS design was actually highly sought-after for bunker fishing, and was considered ideal for the job.

** $34,000 in 2023