Commercial fisherman Jim Lovgren has navigated some rough seas lately.
First, his 70-foot trawler, Viking II, swamped in high waves and sank 80 miles off Cape May in late September.
Then, on Oct. 22, Sandy took a dramatic swipe at the Fisherman's Dock Cooperative, where Lovgren is a director and about a dozen third- and fourth-generation fishermen bring their catch to be sold at markets throughout the country.
The operation, which has survived plenty of ferocious hurricanes and howling nor'easters since it was established on the docks along Channel Avenue nearly 60 years ago, had never experienced anything as bad as Sandy, Lovgren said.
"This is the kind of thing that can make you want to give up," said Lovgren, 56, of Brick. "But I'm at the stage in life where I'm too old to find a new career . . . or a new way of life."
A no-nonsense, salt-of-the-sea kind of man, Lovgren is so immersed in the fisheries business that at any given moment he could be on the deck of a boat; in Washington, testifying before Congress; or in a quiet corner, writing poetry about the beauty of the ocean's bounty. In 2006, he received the Highliner Lifetime Achievement Award from National Fisherman, a journal of the commercial fishing industry.
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