Commercial fishing is never mundane.
It often requires long hours confined to a boat off the coast of New Jersey to harvest the day’s catch.
And sometimes, it turns crews into impromptu rescuers, as was the case with Levi Mullen, a soon-to-be 24-year-old commercial fisherman who came to the aid of two crabbers in the Delaware Bay after intense waves capsized their vessel.
Tim Vedder, who is best known in the fishing community for manufacturing and selling crab traps, was aboard a 17-foot boat with a friend, Brian Kerr, on Thursday evening, setting the traps.
Around the same time, storms from a system that delayed the Philadelphia Eagles-Dallas Cowboys game miles away approached.
As the boat became entangled in another crab trap line, a strong wave capsized it, sending the crab fishermen into the water, where they spent nearly two hours clinging to the vessel, uncertain of when help would come.
“I was worried I was going to die,” Vedder, 51, of National Park, said Monday. “I had several other brushes with life and death experiences.”
Vedder and Kerr, coworkers who bonded over their interest in fishing, left their dock around 5 p.m. Thursday, and their trip brought them to about a quarter mile off the coast of the Mad Horse Creek Wildlife Management Area in Salem County, Vedder said.
“We thought everything kind of brushed over because everything calmed down in the bay … and we set up the crab pots,” Vedder said. “Within a half hour’s time, another storm came from out of Delaware and was producing 4- to 5-foot seas.”
After calming briefly, the approaching storms reignited swelling seas, the men said.
“Once I saw the storm and the white caps coming over, I knew we didn’t have a lot of time to be out there,” said Kerr, 45, of Williamstown.
After plunging into the water, Vedder scoured a roughly 6-inch-high air pocket beneath the overturned boat for life vests. He felt around in the darkness, retrieving one jacket before dipping below the water to retrieve the other.
“I’ve done a lot of crazy stuff, but for that to happen … I’ve never had a boat flip in the Delaware Bay, and I’m out there three times a week,” Vedder said.
Luckily, Kerr’s iPhone survived the fall into the bay, allowing them to call for help.
“I had 20-percent battery life, so I was able to use Siri to call 911,” Kerr said. “I was yelling at whatever dispatch it was to call the Coast Guard (or) State Police.”
They reached the Coast Guard, who weren’t immediately able to help them, he said. Kerr used what little battery life his phone had left to call friends instead. At some point, the men said the Coast Guard issued a distress call, urging any nearby boats to rescue the stranded boaters.
Mullen heard that plea at the dock, which was at least 2 miles away from the capsized boat. He and a dockhand swiftly jumped aboard Mullen’s boat, speeding toward the scene.
He and another boat, which Vedder said came from Delaware, found the men after they had drifted for about two hours. Mullen beckoned both men to swim to his vessel. The two were pulled from the water and brought ashore, where state police were ready to treat them.
The men only sustained minor cuts, Vedder said.
“I have to say that was probably the roughest I’ve ever seen it out there,” Mullen said of the conditions.
Mullen said he decided to look for the stranded boaters when he realized how far away from the scene the Coast Guard was. Since he has been riding boats for almost 10 years, he was able to figure out their location based on the tide.
“I knew which way the tide was running and where the wind was blowing, so that kind of just led me right to them,” Mullen said.
Mullen and the other boater rescued both men from the water and put them on his own boat before waiting for the Coast Guard to arrive. He said that when he first arrived, one of the men was fully in the water.
“It was just a good feeling to get them in the boat because in another 10 minutes, that one guy would have probably died,” he said.
Mullen added that years ago, he was stranded on a capsized boat and a Good Samaritan came to his rescue before the Coast Guard arrived.
“I had been in similar situations and I kind of felt like I would have wanted someone to do something like that for me,” he said.
The day after the incident, he was in the area again and saw that the capsized boat was still in the water. He decided to bring it to land using a rope before draining it, loading it on a trailer and delivering it to Vedder and Kerr.
“I just saw it sitting there and was like, ‘You know what, let’s try getting this guy’s boat back and bring it to him,’” Mullen said.
Neither the Coast Guard nor State Police immediately returned requests by NJ Advance Media for comment.
Eric Conklin
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Eric Conklin may be reached at econklin@njadvancemedia.com.
Nicolas Fernandes may be reached at nfernandes@njadvancemedia.com.
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