BARNEGAT LIGHT — Even at $12 a pound or more at the fish counter, swordfish are a more priceless resource in so many ways: an ocean icon, fish steaks on the summertime grill, a gold mine for enterprising fishermen, a poster child for environmental activists.And the swordfish are back, in a big way. Maybe it finally is a sustainable fishery. After all, the Discovery Channel is counting on a third season of its latest venture into commercial fishing with "Swords: Life on the Line."This week the 72-foot long-line fishing boat Frances Anne is headed for Georges Bank, its captain Chris Kleme and crew hoping to quickly fill the hold with up to 20,000 pounds and race back to claim the best prices — while a Discovery camera crew tapes the best action.The "Swords" series showcases top-tier East Coast long-liners, so called for their method of fishing 1,000 hooks a night, set out on miles-long monofilament lines. It is a technique with deep historic roots in the North Atlantic — generations of cod fishermen hauled baited hooks by hand.Scandinavian fishermen developed the modern method of setting out and retrieving hooks on lines wound with large mechanized reels to catch pelagic fish — far-swimming migrants of the deep ocean, like yellowfin and bigeye tuna along with swordfish.During the 1980s, progressive-thinking young Barnegat Light captains finessed the long-line technique. This small port at the north end of Long Beach Island quickly became the go-to location for swordfish and tuna buyers.Within a few years, that success made long-liners a political target. Recreational fishermen accused them of stripping the ocean. In the late 1990s, environmental activists organized a consumer boycott of American swordfish, over fishermen's protests that their fishing methods were more conservative than other Atlantic fleets.Long-liners organized as the Blue Water Fishermen's Association, headed by the late Nelson Beideman, who started in the business as a teenage mate on Barnegat Light party fishing boats.To counter the swordfish boycott, Beideman got help from sympathetic chefs like Jack McDavid of Jack's Firehouse restaurant in Philadelphia, who told reporters how he would rather buy regulated American swordfish from Barnegat Light than imports of dubious origin. As Europe and Japan maneuvered to gain even more from overfished Atlantic swordfish stocks, Beideman and American recreational advocates agreed to stop fighting each other and present a united front for tighter international controls.
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