NEPTUNE, N.J. – In the gray dawn, Joe Horvath, a New Jersey lobsterman for four decades, boarded his 40-foot Downeaster, the Baby Doll, which was tied to a splintered dock near the mouth of the Shark River.
As the sun broke through Friday morning's clouds, his son, Adam, 33, the sole crew member, who has the thick shoulders of a man who hauls 50,000 pounds of lobster every year, untied the lines, and Horvath eased the Baby Doll through the inlet, threading under the steel girders of the highway bridges and past the Avon-by-the-Sea bulkhead and Belmar's waterfront mansions.
Then, Horvath opened up the 450-horsepower engine for the 10-mile trek through the swells, the motor howling, the wake churning, and the coastline, except for Asbury Park's high-rises, disappearing into the morning haze.
"It's a way of life," Horvath shouted.
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