While many spend the Fourth of July grilling burgers and watching fireworks, it also marks the anniversary of one of New Jersey’s most legendary underwater catches. On July 4, 2003, diver William Sharp surfaced with a lobster so massive it instantly became a state record—and one that likely will never be broken.
Sharp had been diving the wreck of the Almirante, a 378-foot freighter that sank off the coast of South Jersey in 1918 after being struck by a Navy tanker in dense fog. Known locally as the “flour wreck” due to a long-standing myth that its cargo of produce was actually flour, the wreck later became the site of a mistaken World War II attack when a blimp mistook its outline for a German U-boat. A Coast Guard cutter dropped five depth charges, leaving the Almirante in scattered fragments nine miles off Absecon Inlet.
It was among those wrecked steel plates that Sharp, a retired Navy shipyard worker from Little Egg Harbor, had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter. Visibility was limited to 15–30 feet, but his flashlight beam caught a glimpse of a giant lobster nestled beneath the metal debris. Out of air, Sharp quickly tied off his dive reel to mark the location, then resurfaced to his boat, Kitchen Table, aptly named for the place where dive and fishing plans were made in winter months.
Forty minutes later, with a fresh air tank, he returned. The lobster was still there. Sharp turned off his flashlight to avoid spooking the crustacean and reached carefully into its hiding spot, trying not to get pinched by its enormous claws.
“The lobster will stand up in defense and just get itself stuck in there,” Sharp explained. “You have to dig the sand out from under it.”
With sand swirling and visibility worse than ever, Sharp finally wrangled the beast loose. When he surfaced, it was clear this wasn’t just any lobster—it was the largest ever caught by a recreational diver in New Jersey history.
Weighing in at 15 pounds, 3 ounces, and with a 7½-inch carapace, the lobster was taken to Scott’s Bait & Tackle, where it was certified by a state marine scientist. A month later, it was officially recognized as the state’s record American lobster catch.
But here’s where the story gets even more remarkable: that record is likely to stand forever. New Jersey Fish & Wildlife has since retired the lobster category. Due to conservation regulations, it’s now illegal to harvest lobsters with a carapace larger than 5¼ inches recreationally. That makes Sharp’s catch not just impressive—but entirely unrepeatable under current laws.
Though American lobsters can grow even larger—such as the 44-pounder caught off Nova Scotia in 1977 or the legendary 51.5-pounder from Maine in 1926—none have matched Sharp’s in the Garden State. And none ever will, at least not legally.
As for the fate of the crustacean? Sharp and a friend ate it. “I didn’t have a pot big enough,” he joked. “I had to eat it one claw at a time. I saved the parts.”
Today, the faded beige mount of the once-red lobster sits on a shelf in Sharp’s home, alongside other nautical keepsakes—a permanent tribute to the dive, the holiday, and the legacy that will endure.
Image/Source: app
