SUNSET BEACH – Members of the Lower Township Department of Parks and Recreation and Public Works were working to keep the bay beaches clean after a number of bunker fish washed ashore.
“Keeping our beaches safe and clean is a priority,” said Lower Township Manager Mike Voll.
According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, who is monitoring the situation, their investigation points to the wash up of dead fish being a result of a broken net from a commercial bunker vessel.
Gary Douglass, the superintendent of Public Works, said the majority of the fish were concentrated off the Sunset Boulevard beach, however a few were spotted along the Lincoln Boulevard side of the canal. He said that cleanup crews from the township’s Park and Recreation Department pitched in to make sure the beaches were cleaned before the athletes from the Escape the Cape triathlon hit the sand.
DEP spokesperson Lawrence Hanja said that while efforts are being made to clean up the affected beaches, the majority of the fish will be washed out with the tides.
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Several hundred bunker fish have washed up along Sunset Beach June 5, according to a report in the Press of Atlantic City.
The state is monitoring the situation and believes the fish, which number several hundred, are from a fishing vessel.
“We continued to have Division of Fish and Wildlife, Conservation Officers on the scene,” State Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Bob Considine said in an email to the Press of Atlantic City. “We will also have our typical ocean monitoring flight take place over Cape May this morning. At this time, we believe the dead fish washing up on shore is a result of a net break from a bunker vessel offshore.”
Bunker fish are typically used in fish meal or as bait fish for striped bass. They are not typically eaten by people.
Last month thousands of bunker washed up in Belmar. Officials blamed the die-off on low oxygen levels in Shark River.
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