On
the morning of Sunday May 26, 2013, the Point Pleasant First Aid and Rescue
Squad diver’s Michael Bond, Bob Schmidinger, Milton Rodriguez, Joseph Sinkus,
David Gibson, and Chief Diver Chet Nesley met at the squad building with no
real plans to dive. However, knowing that a west wind had been blowing hard for
the prior day and a half, everyone was curious to see what the water conditions
were like. Was the waters visibility atrocious? Perhaps the biggest question in
mind was whether the ocean was flat and clear to continue our beach surveys as
requested by Point Pleasant Beach, Bayhead and Mantoloking? At 0800 we made our
traditional ride down to the foot of Broadway to gage the beach conditions and
then to the Manasquan Inlet to check on the water clarity. The water was “lake
surface” like and was definitely conducive to shore entry by divers because of
the lack of waves. Better yet, it was determined that Rescue 34, our zodiac and
jet ski would be great assets in the underwater survey by pulling the divers
along behind.
We
went back to the building and got our gear and vessels ready for our mission.
Our plan was to launch the vessels at the end of Bay Ave, Point Pleasant Beach
and have the vessels go through the Point Pleasant canal and Manasquan inlet to
meet us just off the beach at Trenton Ave, in Point Pleasant Beach. Dive Unit
347 carried our equipment and divers to the beach, while our first responder
vehicle towed and launched our rescue boat and when finished was utilized on
the beach to move gear and divers. To
make our plan work we had to make a few phone calls. After all, this was very
spur of the moment decision but we could not pass up very good diving
conditions. We contacted the squad captain, Sabrina Fioretti who had access to
the squad’s first responder vehicle 346, which has four wheel drive and EMT
Jerry Meaney who also has a beach capable truck.
As planned Rescue 34 and the jet ski, towed two divers behind
underwater. Both divers held onto a line one hundred feet behind the vessels.
Every time a diver found a large piece of debris that posed a danger to
swimmers, they came up and signaled to the beach surface support on shore. They
in turn marked the area in which the debris was found by positioning the
vehicle on the beach directly in perpendicular with the divers. By doing this
the divers had a point of reference if the object was dropped before recovered.
Surveying was done in water depths of as little as three feet and as
deep at twelve feet. In the 2.1 mile of Point Pleasant Beach and
Bayhead beaches surveyed we found scraps of metal, a sign post, a bed
frame and small chunks of masonry blocks which is not a lot for the area we covered.
The area was surprisingly clear of debris.
The safety of our beaches is an ongoing concern and we
will be continuing when the conditions both sea state and the visibility
underwater allow and manpower is available. As of today, we can say there is no
large debris from Manasquan Inlet to Mount Street in Bayhead. Everything is
being done to make the beaches as safe as possible by the Townships, Dive
Team, the Point Pleasant First Aid and Emergency Squad, the lifeguards, and all
the beach owners. No one can guarantee that anything is totally
safe. Everyone is doing the best they can.
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