Saving Seafood

NEW JERSEY: Belford Seafood Co-Op President Says Why He Joined Lawsuit Against Empire Wind Farm

August 12, 2025 — Middletown’s Belford Seafood Co-op joined a host of New Jersey commercial fishing companies in a federal lawsuit against Empire Wind, a wind farm owned by the Kingdom of Norway that is currently under construction 19 miles (17 nautical miles) off Long Branch.

And now today — for the first time — Belford Co-op president and fishing boat captain Richard Isaksen talks about why he is against the wind farm.

“It’s going to interfere with our fishing grounds. We fear we will be stopped from fishing there,” said Isaksen, who lives locally in Middletown. “It changes by season, but those are our prime grounds for fluke, flounder and squid. The underground cables could also disrupt fish.”

Read the full article at the Patch

NEW JERSEY: Belford Seafood Co-op boats idle after in-season closure

August 4, 2017 — MIDDLETOWN, N.J. — Fourteen fishing trawlers at Belford Seafood Cooperative are sitting idle after fishermen have met the commercial summer flounder quota a month ahead of schedule.

Roy Diehl, president of the cooperative, said the reason for the quick end to the season is strict conservation measures put in place this winter by a regional fishery commission.

“They say there’s no fish. Well, we caught our whole summer quota in two weeks, so there’s plenty of fish out there,” said Diehl.

In February the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission cut the coastwide summer flounder quota by 30 percent from Maine to Florida, citing a drop in the biomass of the stock.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

NEW JERSEY: Fluke-catching quota costing fishermen thousands

August 1, 2017 — BELFORD, N.J. — Dozens of commercial fishermen say they are losing out on pay after they reached their state-imposed limit on how many fluke they are allowed to catch.

Captain Roy Diehl says he and dozens of other commercial fluke fishermen are docked because they caught their allowed quota for the July-August season just two weeks after it opened. He says he blames the 30 percent quota reduction set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission for this year.

“What it does is it takes seven weeks of income out of everybody’s paycheck for the year,” says Diehl. “It’s pretty tough because there’s a lot of fluke out there and we can’t have them.”

The coolers at the Belford Seafood Co-op are empty until fisherman are able to resume catching fluke Sept. 3.

Read and watch the full story at News 12 New Jersey

NEW JERSEY: Seafood co-op seeks more visibility in Monmouth

January 5, 2016 — Patrons of farmers’ markets in Monmouth County and those who support the Grown in Monmouth campaign will be seeing a lot more of the Belford Seafood Co-Op in 2017.

The facility, nestled off Route 36 near the Sandy Hook Bay, has revamped its retail store and will be making efforts to make the organization more visible.

David Tauro is dock manager at Belford Seafood Co-Op, a group of about 20 commercial fishing companies that have been in business together since 1953.

Patrons of the retail store can find just about every kind of Atlantic coast seafood one can imagine, including flounder, cod, tuna, scallops, squid, crabs, lobster and numerous other products.

Scallops furnished by Belford Seafood Co-Op were recently included in a chef’s competition in Asbury Park organized by the Grown in Monmouth marketing initiative.

“We sell pretty much every kind of fish you can think of in the retail store and we also have a wholesale operation at which we sell all the fish caught in our local waters and out as far as 175 miles to the Hudson Canyon,” Tauro said in his office, near several huge walk-in freezer rooms.

The fish typically follow the Gulfstream, he said.

As water near the New Jersey coastline gets colder, whiting, fluke, bluefish, porgies and other fish swim with the warmer waters of the Gulfstream.

“The water can be 70 degrees out there. The canyon water is very deep and warmer and the fish follow it out as it gets colder here. You can be wearing a t-shirt out there in the middle of January,” said Tauro, an experienced commercial fisherman who has made many harvesting trips out to the Hudson Canyon.

He said it can take anywhere from 12 to 15 hours to get there, depending on the commercial vessel you’re on.

Read the full story at AmericanFarm.com

Captain’s Death Rattles a Marina in New Jersey

BELFORD, N.J. — August 30, 2015 — He was a retired construction worker who turned his fishing hobby into a low-pressure business, taking a delight in almost anything he brought back.

Unshackled from the industry’s harsh economy, he came and went on his own hours, defying some of the mantras of professional trawling. There are no sick days. Never get on the water alone.

Tom Andresen, 59, was on the water alone last week when something went wrong. The stern of his 40-foot boat, known as El Jefe, tipped backward just off the Sandy Hook peninsula. In an instant, the calm waters swallowed it, dragging the vessel to the bottom of a 75-foot-deep channel. Only an ice cooler floated to the surface.

Fishermen at the Belford Seafood Co-Op, where Mr. Andresen docked El Jefe and sold conch, sand sharks and lobsters, said they could not recall a boat’s taking such a sudden plunge on smooth waters. A private diving team recovered his body from inside the boat’s engine room on Friday, his family said. The United States Coast Guard is investigating the cause of the sinking.

Read the full story from the New York Times