Kirk O. Larson, a prominent scallop fisherman, co-owner of the Viking Village commercial fishing fleet dock and mayor of Barnegat Light, N.J. for 30 years, died Aug. 30.
After experiencing severe back pain Larson was rushed to the AtlantiCare Cardiac Center near Atlantic City, where he died during emergency heart surgery, the SandPaper reported Sunday.
Larson started in the scallop fleet in 1978, purchasing the boat Grand Larson with his parents John and Marion Larson. The Grand Larson was part of a fleet that grew to define the small port on Barnegat Inlet, prospering in fisheries of scallops, tilefish, pelagic longlining and coastal gill netters.
During the 1920s immigrant Scandinavian fishermen were attracted to work in small fishing settlements on the New Jersey shore. At Barnegat Light, several formed the Independent Fish Co. in 1927, a location later renamed Viking Village. In the mid-1970s captains John Larson and Louis Puskas, who had pioneered a new tilefish fishery, purchased the dock.
In recent years Barnegat Light has consistently ranked among the top U.S. East Coast fishing ports in revenue. From $24 million in 2018 money paid for seafood coming in rose to $64.6 million in 2022 according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.
But meanwhile New Jersey commercial fishermen saw their livelihoods threatened by plans for building offshore wind energy projects, including the planned Atlantic Shores turbine array off Long Beach Island.
“Our lives are on the line. We wonder whether we are going to pay our bills,” Larson told the SandPaper in August 2023.
Now with the Trump administration’s sweeping campaign to shut down wind energy development, it appears that conflict is receding. Larson was “dedicated to fighting against wind farms and protecting his township,” the Ocean County Republican Organization wrote on social media Sunday in announcing that Larson had passed away.
