On weekends, when most people are planning dinners and day trips, a different kind of readiness is running behind the scenes at Key Harbor Marina in Waretown, where Sea Tow Central New Jersey has its office.

“There is someone in this office full time,” Walt Bohn, a Sea Tow captain, said last week ahead of a boating expedition on Barnegat Bay to take a deeper dive into the state of local waters ahead of the recreational boating season’s big kickoff this weekend.