WARETOWN – For 70-year-old John Mazzi of Ocean Gate, fishing has never been just a job – it’s been his whole life.
“I’ve been fishing since I was six,” he said. “The only time I ever stopped was when I served in the Air Force. Fishing is my livelihood, my recreation – my life.”
Self-proclaimed as the “Old Man on the Bay,” Mazzi knows Barnegat Bay like the lines on his weathered hands. But on Wednesday, April 9, the water turned against him.
What began as a routine clamming trip turned into a multi-hour fight for survival, as Mazzi stood stranded on a sandbar, soaked, freezing, and surrounded by 10 feet of churning water.
Lost At Sea, Found By Faith
Mazzi had launched around 2 p.m. from Baker’s Basin, hoping for a productive day of clamming near Oyster Creek Channel. The bay was flat – “like glass,” he recalled. “There wasn’t a ripple when I started working.”
But within hours, the wind kicked up, the tide shifted, and danger crept in. The wind started coming in at 20 miles per hour and the wind and tide were going in the same direction. Initially, it wasn’t too choppy until the wind crisscrossed the tide. By then, Mazzi knew he was in trouble.
“I was five minutes from leaving,” Mazzi said. “I turned around, and the boat was gone.”
Mazzi had anchored his boat somewhat close to the edge of the sandbar so it would be easy for him to leave. He said in the future he plans to anchor more towards the middle as a result of the incident that could have cost him his life.
The fierce winds and tide change resulted in the anchor coming loose. “When you’re in only a couple of feet of water, you don’t let that much anchor line out,” explained Mazzi. “And as soon as it got off the bar, the anchor couldn’t grab.”
Mazzi’s 17-foot Carolina skiff drifted out into deeper water, leaving him marooned with no way off the sandbar – surrounded by ten feet of water. It was five o’clock in the evening and the experienced clammer knew he had just two and a half hours of light left.
“My boat had drifted right next to the main channel – about eight hundred yards from me,” said Mazzi. “By the grace of God, the anchor had grabbed the last high spot that was available.”
Capt. Walter Bohn and Capt. Dan Siegel of Sea Tow collect John Mazzi’s boat as the Coast Guard helicopter sweeps over the waves. (Photo courtesy Walter Bohn)
“That’s the only way that the anchor grabbed where it did,” Mazzi continued. “Otherwise, the boat would have floated all the way to the west side of the bay. That’s where they would have started looking for me and they would have never found me.”
Mazzi waved frantically and screamed in the direction of passing boats. At least six vessels went by. None of them stopped. “If you see an empty boat, you’d think you’d stop and have a look,” he said, nodding his head.
As the sun went down, Mazzi kept clamming. He stood for hours, unable to kneel – the water too deep. “The wind was knocking me around. My rake was the only thing holding me up.”
“It was around midnight when I kind of slipped,” said Mazzi. “I fell in the water and caught myself with my right hand. I didn’t go completely under, but I was soaking wet on one side.”
“My gloves were full of water, and about an hour before they found me, I had stopped shivering, and I knew when I stopped shivering that my body was shutting down.”
Making The Call
At home, Mazzi’s wife felt something was wrong by 8:30 p.m. His youngest daughter tried to reassure her – maybe he was just stuck in traffic. But Mazzi’s wife knew. She called a friend, who rushed to the dock and saw Mazzi’s truck still parked – and no boat.
That confirmation launched a full-scale search. By 10 p.m., Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay sprang into action. A press release issued by the Coast Guard said that Watchstanders launched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic City and a boat crew from Coast Guard Station Barnegat Light. They also activated local marine rescue crews, including commercial responders from Sea Tow.
For boaters or fishermen, a float plan is simply a way to let someone on land know where you’re going and when you’ll be back. “Mr. Mazzi’s float plan was a verbal plan where he told his daughter where he was leaving from, how long he was going to be out and the locations he was planning to do conduct his fishing,” said Rick Anderson, an operations unit controller with Sector Delaware Bay. “Float plans can significantly increase mariners’ chances of being found swiftly by rescue crews because the crews have areas to initiate their search efforts.”
Walt Bohn, captain at Sea Tow, said the Waretown Police Department contacted them around 11:20 p.m. after the Coast Guard reported a missing boater, later identified as someone both he and his fellow captain, Dan Siegel, knew personally.
Bohn suited up and reached out to Siegel, knowing their combined experience could make a difference. Bohn has a background as both an EMT and a firefighter, while Siegel has spent his life fishing and clamming in local waters.
Their search began near Key Harbor and circled back through Oyster Creek Channel. About 45 minutes into their search, the Coast Guard helicopter joined in, covering the area much faster. As the Sea Tow team made their way back toward Baker’s Basin, the helicopter spotted an unoccupied vessel near a newly formed dredge island.
Waretown First Aid Squad was waiting at the scene to render first aid on land as the Coast Guard helicopter brought John Mazzi to shore. (Photo courtesy Shawn Denning)
“When we reached the boat, the keys were still in the ignition, but there was no sign of the boater,” said Bohn. “That’s when I told Dan I wanted him to get on a State Police boat – based on the water temperature and how long he’d been out there, I honestly thought we were looking at a recovery.”
Found At Last
Just minutes later, the Coast Guard called again: they’d spotted a person in the water – about 200 yards from where Bohn and Siegel were checking the boat. As they made their way to the site in extremely shallow water, Bohn turned his spotlight on the area and there was Mazzi – standing.
“It was just unreal,” Bohn said. “I couldn’t believe it. Dan saw him and I can’t even explain the feeling. This guy… he’s the toughest guy I’ve ever met to survive those conditions.”
The Coast Guard lowered a rescue swimmer and brought the man aboard Bohn’s boat using a rescue basket. From there, he was airlifted to Key Harbor for medical attention.
Shawn Denning, a trustee and second lieutenant with the Waretown First Aid Squad, was among the first to treat the rescued boater after he was airlifted to shore by the U.S. Coast Guard.
“The poor guy was severely hypothermic,” Denning said. “He had been out there standing for hours. When the Coast Guard brought him in, they lowered him to us in a rescue basket. We had to physically lift him out and get him into the ambulance so we could begin active rewarming.”
Denning said his team immediately applied their training in hypothermia and water rescue. “This man was truly in peril. But all these agencies – federal, state, local – came together and did what needed to be done. We knew exactly how to manage his condition so it didn’t worsen.”
The rescue also marked a first in Denning’s two decades of service.
“In 20 years, I’ve put people into rescue baskets, but I’ve never received one,” he said. “It was surreal. We had to do it old-school – two of us lifted him out like in the army, carried him to the stretcher, stripped off his soaking wet gear, and started the rewarming process right away. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever been part of.”
John Mazzi is alive today because of his faith and the unwavering dedication of rescuers. (Photo by Stephanie Faughnan)
Denning added that the experience was a powerful reminder of the importance of volunteer responders.
“I hope someone hears this story and says, ‘I want to be there when my neighbor needs help,’” he said. “We need more people to answer the call – whether it’s the fire department, first aid, or search and rescue. You never know when someone close to you might need saving.”
Those who coordinated efforts together included the US Coast Guard, New Jersey State Police, Sea Tow Central New Jersey, U.S. Coast Guard Mid-Atlantic, Ocean Township Police Department, and Waretown First Aid Squad.
God Was His Anchor
As much as Mazzi credits his training, his experience, and the rescuers, he says the real reason he’s alive is his faith.
“If that anchor doesn’t grab where it did, the boat drifts all the way across the bay,” he said. “They never would’ve found me. God put that anchor down where it had to go.”
Confirmation of that belief came the following Sunday, when Mazzi returned to Cedar Creek Community Church in Bayville. The band began playing “Be Not Afraid,” a song chosen randomly, but one with lyrics that pierced straight to his heart:
“If you pass through raging waters in the sea, you shall not drown.”
“I broke into tears right there,” Mazzi said. “Half the church did. That song – I’d lived it.”
Just four days after the rescue, Mazzi was back at it – headed out to clam again. It’s what he does. It’s what he knows.
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