UPDATE ON DECEASED ROUND VALLEY BOATER - The Fisherman
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UPDATE ON DECEASED ROUND VALLEY BOATER

April 19, 2019 by jeremy

A helicopter and ground and water crews searched yesterday, April 1, for one boater reported missing in Round Valley Reservoir in Clinton Township, NJ. The reservoir, nicknamed “Death Valley,” was being buffeted by high winds all day.

The first calls were received at about 11:45 a.m. Fifteen minutes later responders reported sighting "boating debris on the shoreline… including a life vest" but "no sign of the boaters." One responder said that the shoreline was "still very dry anywhere they would have made it to [shore]."

A marine unit arrived on the scene and dive rescue teams were called to the reservoir’s north dam area. The water temperature was reported as 43 degrees. The Garden State Recovery’s underwater unit also assisted and divers first entered the water in the afternoon.

Authorities originally believed two boaters went into the water after their canoe started sinking around 11:45 a.m., officials said. New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese at first thought the boaters safely swam to shore, but that was later proved false when the vehicle was located in the parking lot.

As things turned out, there was only one boater involved. Sadly, his body was was found 70 feet below the surface of the reservoir. The man is presumed to have been a New York resident who, according to State Police Sgt. Adam Grossman, was apparently fishing from a canoe-like small boat. The body was recovered at 6:50 p..m., Grossman said, after a State Police Marine Unit picked up an "anomaly" on its scanner and divers were sent below the surface.

The fisherman found drowned in Round Valley Reservoir in Hunterdon County, N.J., Monday has been identified as a 56-year-old Long Island, N.Y., man. Kenneth Rohatyn of East Northport drowned while apparently attempting to swim to shore after his canoe capsized Monday morning, according to authorities. New Jersey state police said the Hunterdon County coroner’s office ruled his death an accident due to asphyxiation from drowning. Rohatyn was fishing alone Monday in windy conditions and rough waters on the nearly 3.7-square-mile reservoir. Reports I received called the vessel a kayak, not a canoe, and it was reported that he was still wearing hip boots.

The reservoir, with its deep, cold waters and winds that can gain force on the water and kick-up significant waves, has claimed about two-dozen lives over its 40-year existence, officials estimate. It is believed that six of those bodies have never been recovered. When winds over 35 miles per hour are present, a lighting system around the reservoir goes off and boaters are required to get to shore. It is unclear whether these lights were on at the time, but gusty winds were present at my house five miles away.

It is tragic accidents like this one that point out the need to wear your life jacket – regardless of your boating or swimming skills – whenever fishing on cold waters. Please be sure to wear a PFD (Personal Flotation Device) anytime you head out to fish from a small boat during the colder months of the year.