On June 20th, COs Moscatiello and Woerner along with Gary Wolf from the FDA conducted a night time shellfish patrol of the Manasquan and Shark Rivers in Monmouth County. While patrolling the Shark River around 2130 hours, the COs noticed a spotlight along the Shark River Hills section of Neptune Twp. As they arrived at the area of the light they noticed three separate boats with fishermen aboard who appeared to be gigging fish. The COs along with Gary Wolf inspected the first two boats that arrived to the shore and the COs found only a few American eels. Each group was given warnings for spearfishing without being completely submerged in the water. The COs then went back to waiting for the third vessel to come back to shore, which ended up being about three and a half hours later. At around 0145 hours, now on June 21st, the boat had made its way back to the shore. During CO Moscatiello's initial contact with the group of three fishermen and after identifying himself, the man at the stern of the boat grabbed a garbage bag of fish, all the while as CO Moscatiello advised the individual it would not be a wise choice to discard the bag. The individual weighed his options briefly and decided to throw the bag into the water off the stern of the boat. It then appeared that the individual was attempting to put his trolling motor into reverse and head into deeper water to evade the officers. CO Moscatiello would have nothing to do with that and quickly grabbed the bow of the boat and pulled it ashore. CO Woerner secured the three men while CO Moscatiello waded into waist deep water to retrieve the bag and its contents of fish. After recovering the bag of fish the COs also located a bucket on the vessel which contained even more fish. In total the COs located 44 summer flounder of which 42 were undersized. The vessel also contained an undersized striped bass which the men had caught but failed to jettison. Each individual was issued summonses for possession of 29 over limit summer flounder, possession of 42 undersized summer flounder, possession of one undersized striped bass, and for spearfishing while not being completely submerged in the marine waters of the state. The individual that threw the bag of fish was issued additional summonses for interference with the duties of a Conservation Officer, littering while fishing, and for wanton waste of 30 marine fish. All fish were donated to a local food bank.

On 7/10/14 this case was successfully prosecuted with two of the individuals paying penalties of $1,000 each. The third individual who faced additional charges for interference, littering, and wanton waste paid a penalty of $1,500.

 On June 21st, CO Klitz participated in the Barnegat Bay Sweep. While travelling through Silver Bay in Ocean County, CO Klitz noticed a man in a kayak waving at him. As CO Klitz approached closer he was able to see that there was a second kayaker in the water, capsized and ejected from his kayak and in minor distress. The kayakers advised CO Klitz that it was their first time in kayaks and the one individual had been capsized by the wake of several other power vessels. CO Klitz pulled the young man onto his patrol vessel and transported him and his water filled kayak back to shore.

On June 11th, CO Scott was patrolling the Belmar side of Shark River Inlet in Monmouth County, when he noticed black smoke billowing up from a side street. He immediately drove to the area and encountered a Belmar Police Officer attempting to put out a car fire. CO Scott assisted the Belmar Officer by utilizing his vehicle's fire extinguisher. Three full extinguishers were needed to extinguish the fire completely and unfortunately the car was damaged beyond repair.

On July 6th, COs Scott and Woerner were on boat patrol in the Navesink River in Monmouth County, when they received an illegal clamming violation complaint from the Little Silver Police Department via Trenton Dispatch. The COs responded immediately to the complaint via patrol boat and were assisted by Officers from the Little Silver Police Department in making the apprehension. After mooring the patrol boat near Seven Bridges Road, the COs went out on foot. The Little Silver Police Department's Officers advised the COs that six males were illegally harvesting shellfish underneath the Little Silver side of the Gooseneck Bridge. The individuals were apprehended and collectively the group had harvested over 900 ribbed mussels and a small amount of hard and soft clams. Six summonses and six written warnings were issued to the group for harvesting shellfish without a license and for harvesting shellfish from the special restricted waters of the Shrewsbury River.

On 6/29/14, CO Klitz was patrolling in Monmouth County specifically the Manasquan Inlet area from the Manasquan Boro side. He observed an individual on the Point Pleasant Beach side of the inlet retain an undersized summer flounder and place it in the trunk of his vehicle. CO Klitz contacted CO Moscatiello to have him respond to the Point Pleasant Beach side of the Manasquan Inlet to inspect the individual. During this time CO Klitz also observed another group of individuals also place a fish into the trunk of their vehicle. When CO Moscatiello arrived at the location, he conducted an inspection of one of the groups who had fish in their car.  Upon asking if they had any fish the men said that they had none but had caught several short fluke and threw them all back. CO Moscatiello then went to the other fisherman and asked if he had any fish. The man took the CO to his trunk and pulled out a cooler which contained an undersized summer flounder. CO Moscatiello then went back to the original group of fishermen and told them that they should be honest with him, and that he knew they had fish in their vehicle. The one fisherman then recalled that they had caught fish earlier in the day and placed them in the cooler in the trunk of their vehicle. He explained to CO Moscatiello that he was not aware that he the CO was talking about "those" fish. Upon inspection of the fish, one undersized summer flounder was located. During this time CO Klitz, who was still in Manasquan, observed another fishermen catch a short summer flounder and place it in a bucket. When the man saw CO Moscatiello inspecting fishermen he hid the bucket underneath a trailer at the end of the parking lot. CO Klitz contacted CO Moscatiello who then completed this inspection which revealed another undersized summer flounder. All three men were issued summonses for possession of undersized summer flounder.

On June 29th, COs Klitz and Moscatiello were patrolling the Manasquan River between Ocean and Monmouth Counties. CO Moscatiello observed a man clamming in the waters off of what is known as Treasure Island. CO Moscatiello called CO Klitz and asked him to position himself at a different location for possibly a better observation.   CO Klitz positioned himself on the opposite side of the river and was able to observe the man as well as three others clamming. A concerned citizen offered CO Klitz the use of his kayak to get to the island. CO Klitz utilized the kayak and apprehended all four individuals. The group of three were juveniles and were warned of the health risks of eating the shellfish and advised not to clam in the area again. The other man was issued written warnings for failure to obtain a shellfish license and clamming in the special restricted waters of the Manasquan River.

 District 8 Conservation Officers continue to apprehend wily fishermen targeting tautog during the closed season. In North Wildwood during a very slow pick, CO Petruccelli apprehended a family with 13 undersize tautog that were secreted in various locations in the seawall. In Atlantic City, CO Harp apprehended a group of three with 24 undersize tautog that were about to be picked up by a fourth individual in a separate vehicle. In a third instance, a fourth time offender called the Marine Region Office to inform officers that tautog were being targeted by fishermen in the late afternoon in the Absecon Inlet of Atlantic City. A few days later CO Nicklow and CO Harp apprehended the complainant early in the morning possessing seven undersize tautog.

CO Petruccelli investigated reports of large amounts of dead Atlantic menhaden in the Delaware Bay and in the Atlantic Ocean south of the Cape May Inlet. CO Petruccelli concluded the Atlantic menhaden were released by the purse seine catch vessel Charisma on two separate occasions. During the first incident, 1,500 lbs. of menhaden were released after the vessel was about to drift into the illegal fishing waters one half mile from shore. In the second instance, the captain claimed the catch was so large that the net was dragging on the sea bottom and he feared his vessel was going to capsize. While drifting towards the beach, the captain opened the bottom on the purse seine for 45 minutes and released approximately 150,000 lbs. to 200,000 lbs. of menhaden. CO Petruccelli also determined the vessel operator failed to notify the Marine Region Office before commencing menhaden purse seine operations. Summonses were issued to the operator and the Atlantic menhaden permit holder for failure to report a release of Atlantic menhaden and failure to notify the department before commencing Atlantic menhaden purse seine operations.

On the Monday after the July 4th weekend CO Nicklow inspected the seafood counters at multiple Acme Supermarkets in Atlantic County, after receiving information they were selling hard clams that measured less than 1.5 inches. CO Nicklow's investigation revealed Samuel and Son's Seafood out of Pennsylvania had delivered shellfish from a company called Cherry Stone which produces farm raised clams out of Virginia. The clams were marketed for sale in bags of fifty. CO Nicklow determined that roughly 30% of the clams in each bag were less than the minimum size of 1.5 inches. CO Nicklow contacted both Samuel and Son's and Cherry Stone to explain NJ's shellfish regulations and was assured that it would not happen again. Warnings were issued to the Acmes and Samuel and Son's Seafood.

At a residence on the back bay of Atlantic City, CO Nicklow and CO Harp apprehended an unlicensed individual utilizing 18 commercial crab pots to catch well over a bushel of blue claw crabs. The crab pots were the property of a legitimate commercial crabber; however, the gear identification numbers were removed and replaced with 16oz. water bottles. The individual possessed 176 undersize blue claw crabs, one blue claw crab with eggs, and one undersize tautog. Summonses to be issued include: Possess more than a bushel of crabs without a commercial license, Possess 176 undersize crabs, Tend /Tamper with legal set fishing gear, Set pots in manmade lagoon, Set commercial crab pot with no gear identification, possess one blue claw crab with eggs, possess one undersize tautog.

After conducting some long range surveillance on the Maurice River, CO Hausamann observed 3 fishermen placing undersize striped bass in a white bag. As the fishermen were getting ready to leave CO Hausamann approached the fishermen as they were loading their vehicle. The three fishermen were more than willing to show CO Hausamann their buckets with croakers and perch. When CO Hausamann inquired about the location of the white bag the fishermen became very uncooperative and argumentative with CO Hausamann. During their attempt to deter CO Hausamann from performing his duties, CO Hausamann discovered the white bag underneath the fishermen's vehicle. The bag contained 13 undersize striped bass. All three fishermen were issued summonses for undersize striped bass, over the limit striped bass, and interference with the duties of a conservation officer.

CO Nicklow and CO Harp inspected a vessel they observed enter Absecon Inlet with green-stick gear which is utilized to catch Atlantic Highly Migratory Species. The inspection of the vessel revealed three federal violations: two undersize yellowfin tuna; two mahi mahi without possessing a dolphin-wahoo permit; and failure to complete a fishing vessel trip report. The violations were turned over to the National Marine Fisheries Service, Office of Law Enforcement for prosecution.