Coast Guard suspends search for Millville fisherman lost near Gandy’s Beach

The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its active search for a Millville fisherman who went overboard near Gandy’s Beach, but Matthew Oliver’s family kept walking the bayshore in hopes of finding a trace of him.

Oliver, 47, disappeared shortly after noon on April 9 while working aboard the oyster boat F/V Bon Secour in Commercial Township. The search that followed stretched across 77 square nautical miles and involved 10 separate searches before crews called off active efforts when they found no sign of him.

The case has hit home in Cumberland County because Oliver was not a distant name in a maritime incident. He was a local waterman from Millville, working the same Delaware Bay waters that sustain commercial fishing but can turn dangerous without warning. The mayday from the vessel set off a large response, yet the broad search area and the bay’s shifting conditions made the recovery effort difficult from the start.

Even after the Coast Guard suspended its search, Oliver’s family continued searching the shoreline day after day. One relative said, “We’ve been told several times that we’re not going to find him. We don’t want to hear that.” The family has asked the public to stay alert for anything that might wash ashore and help bring answers.

Gandy’s Beach sits on an undeveloped stretch of Delaware Bay shoreline in Cumberland County, land that is known for wildlife habitat but also for erosion, storm impacts and winter ice. The area is part of a much larger estuary that depends on powerful tides and currents, and NOAA maintains tide and current forecasting tools for the bay because conditions can change so quickly.

For working fishermen, the disappearance underscores the risks that come with open-water labor in an area where location, weather and water movement can shift in minutes. Maritime cases like Oliver’s can also raise workplace-safety and legal questions under federal maritime law, including the Jones Act, depending on how the worker is classified and what happened on board. For Cumberland County, the loss near Gandy’s Beach is a reminder that Delaware Bay remains both an economic lifeline and a place where one mistake, one wave or one current can change a family forever.