Even so, people using the water were not hard to find. The Sea-Land Marina, whose wooden row boats are used to catch the Swimming River's surprisingly large blue crab population, is a vestige of Red Bank's commercial boating days. And all of them keepers. Maher has worked at the marina on and off since 1967, his parents bought the place a couple of years later, and they still own it. With more than 30 wooden row boats, the business is open from May through September.
Customers spend several hours at a time doing the repetitive work of crab catching.
But some people aren't able to catch any. Just east along the river, past Cooper's Bridge, near where the Swimming River becomes the Navesink, Long Branch resident Michael Parks and his partner Doug Knittel keep their houseboat on a slip at the end of a dock maintained by the Oyster Point Hotel. Neither man lives on the boat, but during the six months they are permitted to keep the boat there they spend as much time aboard as possible. If you can love an inanimate object, this is it. The restaurants, and clubs, and we like to entertain.