DEPLETION OF FORAGE FISH IN COASTAL NEW ENGLAND WATERS RESPONSIBLE FOR APPEARANCE OF OUT OF STATE BOATS ALONG JERSEY SHORES Since early spring, Monday thru Friday, from sun up to sun down the inshore bait purse seine fleet has been busy scooping up the schools of adult menhaden (bunker) that have gathered enmass along our Northern NJ shorelines. During my fishing charter trips between Sandy Hook and Manasquan Inlet, I see the bunker boats, complete with spotter planes zoning in on the giant schools of menhaden and relentlessly filling boats up untill they can barely sit vertical in the water. The boats are easy to identify since all of the bunker bait boats are required to display a big yellow “B” on the side and must not get closer than .06 nm off the beach and not enter federal waters at the 3 mile mark. By New Jersey state law, the bait boat sector’s catch can ONLY be used for supplying the bait industry, which is typically bait & tackle shops, lobster and crab fisherman etc. Th