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Nelson R. Beideman dies at age 53

Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 05/27/06

BARNEGAT LIGHT — From the time he was 7 years old, Nelson R. Beideman used to say, he knew he wanted to be a fisherman. Within a decade, he would be known here as one of the best, and finally emerge as a prominent national advocate for the seafood industry.

News that Beideman died suddenly at home Thursday at age 53 shocked commercial fishermen throughout the country who knew him for his dogged defense of their livelihoods over two decades.

Beideman was executive director of the Blue Water Fishermen's Association, a group of longline fishing boat captains and support businesses specializing in offshore fisheries like swordfish and tunas.

After fending off a 1989 government proposal for a near-shutdown of swordfish longlining, Beideman continued to fight for his captains' access to fish — and ultimately helped craft an agreement among domestic fishing rivals, so Americans could present a unified front in international tuna management.

"We're all in shock after losing a courageous leader of this industry — not just the longline industry, but fishermen everywhere," said Ernie Panacek, manager at the Viking Village commercial docks and a longtime friend of Beideman's. "For me to have to come back here and tell people we lost Nelson was terrible."

"Nelson was a good guy, and a great help to the fishermen in this state," said Sean McKeon, executive director of the North Carolina Fisheries Association.

The Blue Water group represents fishermen from Texas to Maine who use longline gear — named for the miles of baited hooks their boats trail through the ocean, usually at the edge of warm-water eddies off the Gulf Stream and over prominent sea floor features where big fish congregate. Since 1989 the group worked to keep those fisheries open — often against opposition from environmental and recreational fishing groups, but working with them sometimes on issues like international controls of high-seas fishing and protection for sea turtles.

To reduce accidental turtle captures, Beideman helped organize a three-year experimental effort with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to test circle-shaped hooks and other new equipment on 13 fishing boats, including some from Barnegat Light. The new gear helped stave off mandatory closures on northwest Atlantic fishing grounds, and the World Wildlife Fund promoted it as a way to help imperiled turtle populations in other seas.

Funeral arrangements were incomplete Friday pending an autopsy; Beideman collapsed while climbing a flight of stairs at his 10th Street home around 8:30 a.m., Panacek said.

Beideman is survived by his wife, Terri, and two sons. The family plans to have his body cremated, and the ashes scattered at sea off Barnegat Inlet in accordance with his wishes, Panacek said.

Beideman grew up in Collingswood and on Long Beach Island, where his father, Benjamin Beideman, kept a boat in Barnegat Light and took customers on charter fishing trips.

As a young boy, Beideman helped his father with preparing ice and bait for those expeditions, Beideman said in interviews over the years. His childhood nickname, "Hammer,' followed him into the fishing business, where friends say it was identified with Beideman's determination and tenacity.

Just after Christmas 1971, Beideman was the mate on captain Lou Puskas' boat when it returned from Hudson Canyone with 3,500 pounds of tilefish — reviving a long-lost fishery that immediately put this small port on the map for seafood fans. When Barnegat Light fishermen began using Scandanavian-designed longline technology, Beideman was among a group of progressive young captains who began ranging from Newfoundland to the Gulf of Mexico in search of swordfish.

Another captain was running Beideman's own longline boat, the Terri Lei, when it was lost at sea off North Carolina in April 1993. After that, Beideman concentrated full time on his work with the Blue Water group, working out of his home and on the road to represent fishermen at management councils.

"We were probably the two biggest public adversaries over highly migratory species (tunas and billfish) during the last 10 years," recalled James Donofrio, executive director of the Recreational Fishing Alliance and frequent critic of longline fishing. "But as two guys who made a living on the water, we shared that mutual respect for each other, and that never went away."

Despite their differences, longline and recreational fishermen agreed in recent years that certain foreign fishing practices posed the biggest threat to Atlantic fish stocks, and Beideman advocated working together at international negotiations to set catch limits.

"It's not going to be the same without him there," Donofrio said. "There are certain people who need to be at the table. When someone like Nelson is gone, you can't replace him — his knowledge, his personality."

When the movie "The Perfect Storm" debuted in July 2000, Beideman told an Asbury Park Press reporter that he hoped the film's portrayal of a longline fishing crew would teach the public about the industry he worked to maintain.

Kirk Moore: (732) 557-5728

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