BELMAR — New Jersey’s local lobsters are an open secret for seafood lovers, who know the freshest crustaceans come not in boxes from the Gulf of Maine but little docks tucked into the Shark and Manasquan rivers.
Now, that small but flourishing fishery is in danger of extreme cutbacks — as much as 50 percent to 75 percent of the catch — because regulators are proposing to extend severe measures that deal with a lobster collapse in southern New England waters.
“Originally, they were talking about a five-year moratorium, a total shutdown,” said Ed Davis, a fisherman based at the lobster docks at Shark River Hills in Neptune. “There are some areas that are bad, but the New Jersey fishery is as healthy as it’s ever been.”
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