Belmar Party boats struggle with fuel prices and Fluke regulations

 
April 13, 2008
Fishing
Party Boats Struggle With a Double Threat
By TIM WACKER
Greenport, N.Y.

FROM the perspective of the party-boat business, Dave Brennan has had it pretty good.

His boat, the 90-foot Peconic Star II, is docked here 20 minutes from some of the area’s best summer flounder fishing, and the Long Island Rail Road stops well within cooler-carrying range of his 150-passenger boat.

So why, after some 20 years, is he thinking it might be time to get out of the business?

“It’s the fuel and the fishing regulations,” Mr. Brennan said. “Between the two of them, we’re going to have a rough season this year. There’s less time to go fishing, and it’s going to cost us a lot more when we do go.”

Party boats, a seaside staple, are under siege from Belmar, N.J., to Montauk Point, N.Y., say Mr. Brennan and others in the business. With diesel fuel prices bumping past $4 a gallon in both states and new federal limits on the most prized catch — summer flounder, or fluke — boat owners say it is getting too pricey to take people fishing.

“If things don’t change soon, there are going to be a lot of boats out of business,” said Capt. Paul Forsberg, owner of the Viking Fleet, five party boats and ferries based in Montauk.

Because of higher fuel costs, party boats this year are charging on average $40 to $70 a person for half-day, three-quarter-day or full-day fishing trips. That is up 10 to 20 percent over last year, when diesel fuel cost $2.50 to $3 a gallon, Mr. Brennan said. Boats can burn up to 50 gallons an hour.

Making matters worse this year, Mr. Brennan and Mr. Forsberg say, efforts to bolster the fluke population have made it harder to take legal fish home.

In New Jersey, a keeper summer flounder must be 18 inches, up one inch over last year and 1.5 inches since 2006. In New York, fluke must be 20.5 inches, up an inch over last year and 2.5 inches since 2006. New York’s fluke-fishing season has also been shortened by 16 days over last year.

Federal mandates to help fluke recover from overfishing prompted the restrictions. The stocks have rebounded, but not enough to meet federal limits. Now it is party boats that are becoming scarce, said Alan Shinn, owner of two boats in Belmar.

The number of party boats docked at the Belmar boat basin has dropped to six from nine in the past two years, Mr. Shinn said. He said he is thinking of selling one boat, the Royal Ms. Belmar, because it is losing money and he can charge only so much for a half-day of fishing.

“If we overprice things, it could price us right out of business,” he said. “People have to pay their bills, they don’t have to go fishing.”

This season does not look much brighter for commercial fishermen. Jim Lovgren, owner of a fishing boat and a member of the Point Pleasant Fishermen’s Dock Cooperative in New Jersey, said commercial fishermen were also suffering from government fishing restrictions and rising fuel prices.

“It’s costing us about $500 a day more this year than last to go fishing,” he said of fuel expenses.

Some relief may come in New York; efforts are under way in the State Legislature to give boat owners fuel tax rebates, said Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr., Republican of Sag Harbor. The state tax on diesel is 28.9 cents a gallon. Such a rebate, which is available to boats in New Jersey, would cost New York about $2 million, Mr. Thiele said.

But, he said, the state economy could lose much more than that in revenue, since hotels, restaurants, bait shops and coffee shops would suffer if party boat fishermen stopped coming to town.

If that happens, Mr. Brennan said, there may be a new business coming in: boat sales.

“You know anybody who wants a 100-passenger boat?” he said with a half-serious tone. “I don’t know. I may be able to hang on this summer, but I know a lot of guys that are thinking of getting out.”