Page 3
Winter 2016
NATURAL RESOURCES PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
LOUIS FIGURELLI
By Danny Ingellis
On November 5, 1994, Louis Figurel-
li passed away. He was a staunch
defender of Staten Island and New
Jersey waterways. Lou was the first
President of the Natural Resources
Protective Association (NRPA). He
would patrol the Staten Island and
Raritan Bay waterways looking for
poachers, polluters and commercial
fisherman who didn’t adhere to the
laws of fishing. He was a fierce
combatant with all of the above, in-
cluding the governmental agencies
who he believed were not doing
enough to keep these waters safe for
all.
In 1992, Governor Mario Cuomo’s
budget
included approximately
$75,000 dollars to improve boating
and fishing access in Lemon Creek.
Lou Figurelli was instrumental in get-
ting this done and he complained
vociferously that Albany was drag-
ging its feet in beginning this im-
portant project. The Coalition of
Boatmen in Lemon Creek, including
Lou Figurelli, led the charge to se-
cure the necessary permits to begin
the dredging and repairing of the
bulkheads at Lemon Creek.
It should be said that Lou Figurelli
did all of this despite being severely
disabled since childhood. He en-
dured about forty surgeries in his
youth because his father was deter-
mined to see Lou become more in-
dependent. It has been reported that
doctors informed both Lou and his
Dad after the final surgery that Lou
would never walk. Hearing those
words made Lou more determined to
prove those doctors wrong. After
two years of intense therapy and
personal determination, Lou Figurelli
walked out of the hospital without
braces, albeit with the aid of crutch-
es.
In spite of his disability, Lou was de-
termined to keep our waters free of
polluters and to stop commercial
fishermen from using nets to catch
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handicapped by the roadway raising
project for the Bayonne Bridge.
At Eberhard Faber Park (that’s right,
the pencil maker), some youths were
using the new hover skateboards
and they are truly amazing.
Down by the water, we had a clear
view of the City of Bayonne and the
multiple tugs, barges and other port
traffic.
The debris was plentiful and varied,
from quarter ounce plastic bags to
thirty pound driftwood pieces. There
were pieces of plastic sheeting,
sliced shipping rope, baby toys, a
welder’s helmet, six one gallon milk
containers, a boat cushion, a life
jacket, a broken wood baseball bat,
golf and tennis balls, a surf rod hold-
er, insulation pieces, fiberglass boat
deck, plywood sheet pieces, tree
branches, food packaging, ciga-
rettes, straws, water bottles, a
Christmas cookie container, a tube
of Preparation H, plastic storage
container covers and wood trim. All
in all, about 320 pounds of debris
was removed from the shoreline of
Faber Park.
I hope you've enjoyed our tale of the
work that NRPA does all over our
region. We have a lot of fun doing it
too!
Please join us on our next adven-
ture.
“bunker”, also known as menhaden.
Menhaden have been called “the
most important fish in the sea” be-
cause they are an important food
source for larger fish such as striped
bass as well as for whales, dolphins
and even birds such as osprey and
eagles. He would patrol the water-
way with his small boat called the
Seagull and his dog Sinbad. The
names of his boat and his dog quick-
ly lead one to appreciate Lou’s love
of the waterway.
In 1989 ExxonMobil had a tremen-
dous oil spill in the Arthur Kill and it
was Lou who fought the authorities.
He got the New York City Police De-
partment and New Jersey authorities
to send down divers. They quickly
determined that one of the oil tank-
ers had ruptured a pipe the diameter
of a basketball, spilling thousands of
gallons of oil into the Arthur Kill.
This threatened the birds that nested
on nearby Shooters Island.
One day, this writer observed Lou
Figurelli exiting the office of one of-
Staten Island’s Assistant District At-
torneys. At the time I had no idea
who Lou was and inquired why this
disabled gentleman was in the office.
The Assistant District Attorney then
told me that Lou Figurelli was one of
the complainants against ExxonMo-
bil in the oil spill case. Now fast for-
ward to just a few months ago when
I asked Jim Scarcella about Lou Fig-
urelli and he gave me a few articles
on all that Lou had accomplished.
Included in the information were
photographs of Lou and that is when
I realized that I had met him before. I
told Jim, “Hey I first saw this gent in
the Staten Island District Attorney’s
Office in 1989”. Folks, Lou Figurelli
was without a doubt, a determined
man who ensured that our water-
ways were respected by not only
commercial fishermen but also rec-
reational boaters and anglers. He
began NRPA and to this day we car-
ry on his legacy. We have no doubt
that he looks down upon us as we
clean up our beaches and assist oth-
er organizations in keeping Staten
Island a beautiful area for all to en-
joy, including above all, the wildlife
and fish that pass through each day.
I took it upon myself to do some re-
