Shark Fishing - Not Shark Food 
2003 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance
FOUR BOATERS MISSING AFTER SHARK FISHING CONTEST:
onday, June 17, 2002
Four Long Island men who were participating in a shark fishing tournament 40 miles off the Manasquan, N.J. coast remain missing last night as the Coast Guard continued a search for a 25-foot boat first reported overdue on Saturday.
The names of the four men on board the fishing boat "Eleni" were not immediately available according to Coast Guard officials.
The Eleni, a 25-foot Wellcraft center console fishing boat with white hull, blue canopy and twin outboard engines, was last heard from 12 miles south of Jones Beach, N.Y., officials said. The Coast Guard received a mayday call at around 9:00 AM, but a search at that time was unsucessful, primarily due to severe weather and ocean conditions.
Organizers of the Freeport Hudson Anglers Shark Tournament at Jones Beach reported the Eleni overdue an hour after the contest concluded at 6:00 PM. The Coast Guard then launched a new search in the waters from Jones Beach as far south as Atlantic City with a plane, two helicopters and four rescue boats from two separate Coast Guard stations.
UPDATE AS OF 6-21-02: The Coast Guard has officially ended its search presuming that the four men on the Eleni have perished. What makes these four Darwin candidates is the fact that on the day of the tournament, there were small craft "WARNINGS" posted by NOAA radio predicting "Gale force" winds, "Significant" rain and 8 to 10 foot seas. Anybody who knows anything about boats will tell you that its practically suicide to put 4 big men into a 25 foot open boat with twin outboards hanging out the back into the open ocean in these conditions. The fact that the one and only mayday came at 9:00 AM is proof that these guys ran into trouble early on. Obviously these four fools never went to see the movie "The Perfect Storm" or "Jaws" for that matter! So instead of Fishing for Sharks, they ended up Feeding the Sharks instead!Submitted on 06/24/2002
Submitted by:
Jed Zarin
Reference:
The Star-Ledger - NJ 6-17-02
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