August 11, 2025 — Sitting in a Point Pleasant Beach dockside eatery on a summer day, one can take in the sights and sounds of a lively fishing village at work. Sea gulls squawking, commercial boats coming and going, nets drying and lobster pots stacked up on the planked docks.
The aroma of sauteed shrimp and scallops, steam lobster and blue claw crabs water one’s mouth as a waitress or waiter brings you a menu full of seafood delicacies.
But the odds those menu items came from the where the fleet just returned are slim. In fact, this $3.2 billion New Jersey industry supplies just a fraction of the state’s ravenous appetite for seafood, especially when tourism drove more than 123 million to New Jersey last year — 20 million to Monmouth and Ocean counties alone. These visitors spent more than $14 billion on food and drinks, the state’s Division of Travel and Tourism reports.
To make up the difference, restaurants and fish markets must bring in seafood from other states and foreign countries.