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Dump Old Methods, Fishermen Advised

by John Wade STONE HARBOR — Enforcement of the 200-mile limit has eliminated much of the competition by foreign fishing fleets off the New Jersey coast. Now it’s time for local fishermen to update their relatively primitive methods and adopt the “farm fishing" techniques used by their competitors. Doug Long, an^n-board inspector for the National Marine Fisheries Institute, made that observation during his recent slide presentation at the Wetlands Institute here depicting his experiences aboard foreign vessels monitoring and controlling farm fishing operations inside the 200-mile limit. HE EXPLAINED THE “farm fishing” cycle, which begins with the use of sophisticated electronic technology to find the fish and control the depth and width of the nets. It ends, usually in 24 hours, with the catch quick frozen, packaged and stored in the freezer holds of the boat. This cycle is repeated day after day until the holds are full. By contrast, he said Nov. 22, the

American comm erica 1 fisherman uses only limited technology to find the fish and none at all to control his nets. Since he does not freeze his catch, he must return to port every two or three days, sometimes with holds only half full, wasting fuel and time. Then the iced catch spends two or three days more in transit to the marketplace. By the time the catch reaches the consumer’s plate, its quality is sometimes so poor the American fish eater often prefers the imported product of foreign farm fishermen caught off our own coast. THE INSPECTOR STAYS on board the foreign vessel the entire time it is in U.S. waters, Long explained. He makes sure that the vessel obeys all U.S. fishing regulations and that it does not exceed its quota of fish. While on board he also collects scientific data to assist and improve U.S. fishing practices. Before the United States declared 200-mile limit in 1976. on any day of the year there were hundreds of foreign fishing boats operating within two to three (Pag* 3 Please)

Jersey Coast’s Economic Outlook Bright

STONE HARBOR — Progress in curbing pollution and preserving the wetlands has brightened the economic prospects of the Jersey Shore. Good management and control of commercial fishing, increased development of mainland fish processing, and more scientific data about the fish and the coasts can make those prospects almost limitless, William Figley told an audience at the Wetlands Institute here at the conclusion of his slide show. "Tour of New Woodin ’ for Free

Jersey's Coastline”. The featured attractions of the Nov. 22 show were New Jersey's 125-mile oceanfront coast, 389,000 acres of estuaries, and 250,000 acres of salt marshes of wetlands. The most emphasized features were the commercial and recreational importance of these areas. But Figley also graphicly demonstrated the problems of pollution and overdevelopment that plague the Jersey coast. HIGHLIGHTED WAS Cold Spring Inlet,

at the southern end of the island chain stretching along the New Jersey coast. The Inlet is used by the comm erica I fishing fleet of Cape May and Wildwood, the 13th largest in the United States. The fleet seeks a wide variety of fish and uses an equally wide variety of methods to bring the catch onboard. Bottom scraping sleighs are used to dredge clams and scallops; purse nets are used for many types of fish, such as flounder, cod, haddock, and weakfish;

long lines are used for tuna, swordfish, and tilefish. The surf clams brought in by the fleet are the most valuable in dollars of any commercial catch in the state THE STARTING POINT of the tour was New York Harbor, the Hudson. Raritan, tyackensack and Passaic Rivers meet the ocean to form one of the world's largest natural commerical waterways. Because of pollution from this huge system, the area was. just a few years ago. considered (Pagt 3 PImm)

Or, How to Keep Warm Without Losing Your Shirt

BY CHARLES VINCENT MATHIS Do the Arabs really need your petrodollars to gamble away at A.C. or LV? *

T-I-M-B-E-R. the kind that falls along the bonks as the Cape May Canal continues to erode. Is one source of firewood that comes naturally.

There’s firewood just like Mother Used to chop! It's almost as bad as fishing. Nobody ever gives you any information you can use. Ask a fisherman when they’re biting, then go fish in the opposite direction. Same goes for free firewood hunters. Now, not everyone is looking for free wood, but a genuine connoisseur of "wooding” always feels like it’s cheating to pay for it. Your regular wood-buying person can pay more than $100 a cord for it, but your dyed-in-the-bark, wood-freak has a buzzsaw, a pick-up or Jeep (usually battered) and a wife nearly as tight-fisted as he is. IF YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT buying the wood, there are two places to go - your nearest bank for a loan, or the phone book and the classified ad section of the Herald and every newspaper within 50 miles. Forgetting the bank, start dialing every wood seller in the area and ask for the price of 3 or 6 cords (3 cord’s 4 x 4 x 8 ft.). Whatever the price he gives you, chuckle and tell him the other guy was $15 a cord cheaper. With all the rustics, Pineys and such native to South Jersey, there are legions of

wood-scroungers. They hop in their pickup trucks, buzz-saw at the ready, looking for a sly chance to help Mother Nature "thin out" her forests. None will tell you their special places. BUT THEY ARE RELATIVELY easy to find for yourself. All it takes is poverty, a strong back, a weak mind, a love of nature and a total ignorance of the law. There isn’t any place left to cut wood in South Jersey which isn’t inaccessible, illogical or illegal. One legal source is clearing land for home developers. Power-lines are another good site. A Jeep is best, but a truck can make most of them if it Isn’t muddv. Get as far away from homes as possible. One Cape May County wood scrounger joyously confides that he’s never been reporached or even arrested and he's heated a big house with eight sbding doors, not to mention a few of those Florida-style jalousie windows, for free! Train your eye to identify already-dead wood. It’s already dry and ready to use. At first you will find it difficult, but it’s amazing how after four or five trips you spot the dead wood quickly; In winter, it doesn’t have dead leaves or buds.

(The only green wood you can burn immediately is-Locust.^This gnarly, grey ribbed tree is hard as nails and bums fast and hot. You can bum it now or completely age it in three months.) BUT ASSUMING YOU ARE a mite chicken (others might say sensible), we suggest these steps for buying wood. •Call everyone you know who bums it and ask what they pay and from whom. •Buy it in the Spring and Summer when the market is glutted and the price is lower

(Pegs 3 Pfsast)

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The 4th Annual Food Drive for the Needy in the Wildwood area will be this weekend wh^n members of the Greater Wildwood Jaycees and Cape May County Jaycee-ettes will go door-to-door collscting non-

perishable foods.

Residents who won't be home may drop their contributions off at the Jaycee Clubhouse. 3005 Pacific Ave. or call Jeannette Riper. 886-3121

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