by Patricia A. Miller
A local fisherman discovered a body around 7:30 a.m. Saturday, about a quarter of a mile north of where a French man went missing Friday afternoon, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said today.
The Ocean County Medical Examiner is identifying," said Robert Considine.
The U.S. Coast Guard last night suspended its search for the man who disappeared in the surf off Island Beach State Park shortly before noon on Friday.
Nicholas Guilhote, 25, entered the water on an unguarded beach near the A-20 section of the park - about 7.7 miles in from the entrance gates. Island Beach lifeguards, the Coast Guard and park police searched for him for hours.
Friday was a difficult day for the lifeguards and staff at Island Beach State Park, as they struggled to cope with other numerous ocean rescues and continued to search for the missing man, Area Supervisor Ray Bukowski said.
The park's two bathing beaches were closed for several hours shortly after noon at the height of the search, since so many guards were needed to assist, Bukowski said.
Surf conditions have been somewhat rough over the past several days, with three to four-foot swells and water temperatures of roughly 65 degrees, he said. A "substantial" amount of rip currents havebeen prevalent.
But the biggest problem this season and last year has been the number of people who swim on unguarded beaches, Bukowski said.
"We have a finite amount of resources in terms of equipment and lifeguards," he said. "It compromises our resources."
"We have had this problem historically, but this year it's been excessively bad," he said. "We have a finite amount of resources in terms of equipment and lifeguards."
Other park staff had to be pulled from their duties to keep visitors off the two bathing beaches when the search began, simply because there were not enough guards to man the beaches and help in the search at the same time, Bukowski said.
The guards made unrelated saves both before and after the man went missing, he said.
The U.S. Coast Guard coordinated the search, both Bukowski and DEP spokesperson Bob Considine said.
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