Wreckage of Missing Fishing Boat Found Off Sandy Hook

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The New Jersey State Marine Services Bureau located wreckage they believe is the El Jefe, the 40-ft fishing boat out of Belford which was reported sinking Tuesday afternoon.
Coast Guard, Marine Police, NY Police and others have been searching for the boat, which other fishermen reported had capsized and was sinking in Sandy Hook Channel. The search was called off last night and resumed this morning, using sonar imaging.
Divers from the state’s T.E.A.M. unit are now searching the water in the area of Buoy 14 to determine if it is the missing boat and if there are any persons aboard.
Earlier, police had found a life preserver and other debris which may have come from the vessel and divers are now searching the area.
The captain of the fishing boat, Thomas Anderson, has been recognized as an “experimental fisherman,” a term commercial fishermen use to describe a newer waterman. His boat contained a number of lobster nets, conch nets, some gill nets, and he was fishing “a  little bit of everything,” according to Joe Branin, long time waterman and manager of the Belford Co-Op, where the El Jefe regularly sold his catch.
Branin said the last time he saw Anderson was Monday afternoon when he came in, and said he knew from other fishermen that he went out alone Tuesday morning on his regular routine. The manager said he did not know the age or condition of the El Jefe, but pointed out that all boats have to be Coast Guard inspected before they can leave the dock. Though the boat has been in Belford for six years or so, he was with a different owner-captain before Anderson.

By MURIEL SMITH