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 !...