Gull Island Seal Rest Stop....

Photos of seal reported by Chet Nesley at Gull Island, Pt Pleasant NJ on 3/4/12, taken around 12:00 noon. Seal was hauled out at the base of the train bridge and would quickly return to the water when the train crossed the bridge. He would swim around and dive at this location and then haul out again. I checked again around 5:00 pm and seal was not at this location and no site of him in the water.

Sinker Sales 2012....

Today, Feb 26, 2012, we had an excellent turnout for our Blowout Sinker Sale. Ocean Fire Co. #1 invited us again to table at their annual Fisherman's Flea Market, held at Antrim School. With a beautiful day, the event was well-attended, and fortunately 13 members were available to pack out 2116 pounds of sinkers. (In case you were wondering, that's nine FULL 5-gallon buckets. Of course, you shouldn't ACTUALLY fill a five gallon bucket with lead and try to move it. We did a scientific investigation and proved that it will break.)

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Our crew of Professional Sinker Sorters were busy sorting the whole morning and preparing custom orders to exacting specifications. Or not. (When you want to get rid of a ton of lead, it becomes necessary to throw in an extra handful here and there.) Mike and Justin were so busy selling, we actually ran out of bags and had to make a supermarket run. We also sold lures (hand-polished by Flo), F-Cove salvaged sunglasses, and a handful of vintage bottles. In the meantime, Larry the Singing Lobster kept the kids busy with his only two songs.
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In the end, we did have to take back home some bottles, lures, and a rusty anchor that just couldn't pass muster. And Larry. BUT NO LEAD. This was our best sinker sale to date, so thanks to everyone who stopped by and to our hosts.

Can we take ONE week off from collecting now? Not if we want to have 2500 pounds next year...

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WHAT WE LEARNED TODAY:
1. Full buckets of sinkers are HEAVY!!! LIFT WITH THE LEGS!!!!
2. Kids LOVE Larry the Lobster.....Adults DO NOT!!! (Except Flo)
3. There are some things you cant even GIVE away!!

Sinker dive facts
52 sinker dives in 51 weeks
Biggest haul 288lbs
Most sinkers came out of manasquan inlet
five dives in shark river inlet
two dives on the wreck of the delaware
two dives at the highlands bridge
It took eight people six hours to clean and sort the sinkers.
Best sinker spot is sue's sinker garden, over five hundred lbs of sinkers came from that one spot.

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Random shots....

New Years 2012 Call...

It was January 1st and the Dive Resuce Team was ready to have our first
dive of the year. We were to meet at the squad building on Sunday afternoon for
a fun and leisurely dive. However, things dont always go as planned. At 8:30 am
we received the call of a possible submersion. On the shore of "The Lake of the
Lillies", one of the many local lakes in Point Pleasant, a pair of shoes, a belt
and a pair of socks were found. No actual report of a sighting, but it must be
treated just the same.

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Responders included the Police, Point Pleasant Fire Dept, Point Pleasant
Boro First Aid & Dive Team, as well as the Point Pleasant EMS & Dive
ResuceTeam. Appoximately 30-40 resuce personel were on scene.
From the possible point of entry we instituted a search pattern using over
160' of search line. Using a semi-circular expanding line search we walked
through the sub-50 degree waters of the lake with negative results. While the
divers executed the search pattern in the water, the Point Boro Dive Team
searched the shores using their Rescue Boat and Kayak. No trace of a victim was
found and all rescue personel were pulled from the water. We searched the shores
of the lake, pressing through the dense reeds and thorns for possible exits,
entries or other evidence.

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The State Police helicopter arrived on scene and found several possible
hotspots. These turned out to be a banner and a large plastic bag. After over 5
hours on scene the decision was made to call off the search until further
evidence was forthcoming...

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The fire dept was very helpful as they brought their decontamination unit
and it was much appreciated after traipsing through all the goose droppings and
muck. Hats off to all the resuce personel for a job well done.

End of soggy wetsuit season....

This weekend marked the probable last chance for the dive team to dive "Wet suit" for the 2011 season and the choice for the dive was the new Highlands Bridge just completed a month or so back. The new bridge has some pretty lines to it and it should for the estimated $124 million price tag that came with it and all the effort it took to complete a project like this...

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"NJDOT will demolish the bridge and replace it with a 65-foot high fixed span structure with 12-foot lanes and 8-foot shoulders. NJDOT will construct the bridge in a manner that maintains existing traffic flow and minimizes seasonal impacts and diversion of traffic to local streets"

The old bridge had been there for a considerable amount of time and any qualified diver that has spent time under this bridge during and through a tidal change can only imagine the amount of water that has passed under this bridge over the years. This is one of the best dive sites to view marine sponges that have attached themselves to anything they can and thrive very nicely due to current and nutrients that pass by.

This site has been very beneficial in the past for training sessions dealing with swift currents as well as low visibility search techniques. Many fine old bottles have been recovered from this site as well as coins, medallions, jewelry, tools, and pretty much anything you can imagine being thrown by people standing on the bridge while the drawbridge was up and boat traffic was in progress. This site has also provided many different dive profiles for sometimes it was nice to swim the entire area depending on visibility and current conditions and at other times just finding a comfortable spot to simply "fan" and see what you could find. With that the entire area under the bridge provided many unique bottom profiles and at many times numerous underwater obstructions. Fortunately the people in the below video chose the correct high tide period to perform their stunt for the camera... If they only knew....

Chief Diver Nesley going over the dive site and profile with some of the recently certified divers. Great opportunity to inform those who had not experienced the site as to what to expect and some of the history to this area and dive site.

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Removal of some of the bridge abutments to the old bridge in the above photo...

Sue Lewicki inspecting some of the artifacts discovered during the dive

Picnic after the dive was at Sandy hook and provided the opportunity to debrief the dive and to go over and inspect the finds from the dive....

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2011 Underwater Pumpkin Carving...

Underwater Pumpkin Carving this year took on yet another challenge for the members of the dive team. It's hard enough to hold down a buoyant pumpkin while underwater 15-20 ft\sw, hollow out the same pumpkin and now have all that mess floating around your mask, pumpkin innards stringy things getting entangled in your regulator, current, and cold water. This year throw in some underwater visibility that makes you hope you come back to the surface with the same 10 fingers you took down with you...

Once again the Dive team completed the annual Underwater Pumpkin Carving contest\event which brings members together for a unique form of training as well as keeping the Dive team visible to the public they serve...

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Congrats !...

Result of intensive training.....

Even with living in central Virginia and almost 400 miles from the Manasquan Inlet and the Point Pleasant Beach area of central New Jersey, I still get sent e-mails of team functions as well as calls to duty when incidents occur. This just happened a few days ago when Team Captain Chet Nesley sent out the call after it was reported a body was seen floating in the hurricane Irene swells that were running the length of the Manasquan Inlet. Point Pleasant Rescue Dive Team members rolled out and responded to the Inlet that was still taking a pounding from Irene that was still coming up the coast and dropping substantial amounts of rain along with hurricane force winds. Upon arrival team members discovered a body floating near the "Jacks" of the Manasquan Inlet and attempt was made to retrieve the lifeless body but a 7 to 10 foot rolling wave came down the inlet separating Chief Nesley who was 6 to 8 feet from the body that was then washed into the "Jacks"...
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The above photo shows Chief Nesley among the massive concrete jacks searching for the missing body that he was separated from a short time ago. Unfortunately the body could not be located and retrieved that night and was retrieved along with another victim the next day...
Several local news services covered this story and can be found here:
Here and Here.....



While sitting in Virginia and following developments of this incident by way of Internet reports, emails, Facebook postings, and telephone calls, I started work on the initial post for this site with some background research of prior incident response and training sessions at the Manasquan Inlet and the Jacks then being searched. This Rescue Dive\Scuba team is not like many teams that are part of local Fire department or First-Aid teams across the country. This team has been known to be out in and seen training in many diverse conditions practicing and improving their skills. Many of these training missions can be seen here and they have obviously paid off as evident of the posture and actions of this team of dedicated members...

Many years ago while working on my PADI Rescue certification as well as eventual PADI Divemaster certification, it was evident that this training was not of the "basic" variety that I fear many divers have been cheated with by dive shops and Instructors who were more interested in moving students thru the system as fast as possible and greatest profit margin. This I compare with the resort training that I saw while living in the Florida Keys where divers could get their Rescue certification in a weekend and learned many of the skills at the dock with 2 to 4" waves usually created by passing boats. In comparison the training that I was fortunate to receive was over a 5 to 6 week period with many sessions spent in often rough Jersey surf and follow-up debriefing sessions athe the local 7-eleven...

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Above photos show a frequent training session at the inlet and description here....

Above two photos show actual rescue at the Manasquan Inlet back in 2006 and description can be found here....

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POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The bodies of two cousins who told friends they were going out to the beach to see firsthand the arrival of Hurricane Irene in this seaside resort town were recovered from the jetty of the Manasquan Inlet on Monday, closing out a search effort that began Sunday evening after a call about a body spotted there...

Update: Link to new information on autopsies......

Body (2) recovery at Mannasquan Inlet after Hurricane Irene.....

First article of incidnt here...

Team description and additional info to follow......

Wooden Boat Show ~2011~

On Saturday, July 16, 2011, we once again participated in the Wooden Boat Festival at Huddy Park, Toms River. This event features dozens of antique, classic, and restored wooden boats on display, many open for visitors to board. You just had to watch out for the pirates that eternally seem to be running amok, but at least there was an ice cream festival down the street at the same time.

The event organizers were kind enough to spot our exhibit near one of the festival entrances, so we had a steady stream of visitors all day. The first gentleman we talked to, before we were even set-up, was actually a fall victim with a badly dislocated finger. We can't go ANYWHERE without a first aid call!

Joe had never worked one of these all-day events, but he's a quick study and jumped right in after Sue in manning the touch tank. This is still our biggest hit, both for children ("Animals!") and their parents ("Those live around here?"). We also took turns at our artifact table and with SCUBA man. How many photo ops can one dry suit take? We may never know...

The long day was also made fun by a troup of pirates-for-hire wandering, carousing, and generally riling things up. They were responsible for a couple of shootouts, a sword duel, and random cannon fire. One random passerby, who just really wanted to get some funnel cake, got stuck in the middle of their mayhem and was tossed over a bridge into the creek below. That's pirates for you.

By the end of the day, we'd once again met a lot of pleasant people happy to learn a little bit more about the natural Jersey Shore. We returned our specimens to Gull Island where they'd come from. Good luck to them all trying to explain their out-of-water experience to everyone back home!

Wedding Ring Recovery....

When someone needs help in the ocean, they call the U.S. Coast Guard. When the Coast Guard needs help, they call us. At least they did on Tuesday, June 14, 2011. No one was in immediate danger, except one crew member whose wedding band dropped off the dock at Station Manasquan. (We don't know if his marriage was in actual danger, but we all wanted to get his ring back just the same.)

Chief Nesley reported to the station that day and spent two-and-a-half hours down with an underwater metal detector, with negative results. He discovered afterwards that he had not been directed to check the correct area off the dock.

On Sunday, June 19, we brought a second crew back to the station, and this time we got to speak directly with the crew member who lost his ring. He pointed right to the spot where the ring dropped off and added that tide had been running out 2-3 hours at the time. We dropped an anchor to mark the center point of the search area, followed by a quarter to observe how a small object would interact with the substrate. Vis was good, but the sediment there is like pudding. The coin plopped halfway into the muck (and didn't go any further), but every touch of the bottom erupted a silt cloud. We figured that the underwater metal detectors might be necessary, so we adjusted the sensitivities to pick up small objects.

Joe and Sue first drifted over the entire search area for a rough visual scan. Not seeing our target, they came back to the dock where Chet and Brandon assisted in getting them both outfitted with the underwater metal detectors. They returned to the bottom to begin the tedious process of sweeping a pattern. Within a few minutes, Joe returned to the dock, seemingly fed up and frustrated. He choked and complained to the Chief about the job, right before he "coughed" the ring up onto the dock!

At some point, Joe went back down to recall Sue. We were glad to complete another successful search & recovery mission, and one Coast Guard crew member was glad to have his wedding band back