September 01, 1994 - Plying the Clearly Plentiful PeconicsSA • The Suffolk Times • September 1, 1994
Plying the Clearly Plentiful Peconics
By Paul Stoutenburgh
Where have all the fish gone? This
and many other questions about our
bays are trying to be solved by our New
York State Department of Environmen-
tal Conservation (DEC) in its never-
ending search for answers. What's at
stake is a billion -dollar tourist and fish-
Focus on
Nature
ing industry that hinges on a clean and
productive estuary system. To help
come up with some of the answers as to
why our bays have become less produc-
tive, an ongoing survey of what's in our
bays starts each year on the first of May
and goes until the end of October. The
survey takes place aboard a research
vessel based in Shinnecock.
As a member of the Peconic Bay Es-
tuary Program, I was invited to travel
aboard the research vessel and see for
myself just what was out there. Our de-
parture was from the county marina in
Shinnecock — the time was 8 o'clock.
Our captain was Ben Havens, who
knows our waters inside and out from
more than eight years' experience sur-
veying the bays. Marc Colletti, a marine
resource technician, and Todd Spencer
and Rick Franwick, both seasonal em-
ployees, completed the crew. After a
friendly greeting, we were off in the
sparkling white fiberglass "Dave Wal-
lace" for many way points in Great
Peconic Bay.
The boat is rigged with hydraulic
winches on each side that trail steel ca-
bles through booms above, and to these
cables the 16 -foot -wide submerged fish
net later would be attached. Inside the 1
3/8 -inch mesh net is a smaller three -
sixteenth -inch mesh net that captures
the juvenile fish, which is the prime
reason for their survey.
The exact points to be worked are lo-
cated by a loran aboard so that each
sampling can be compared to the same
spot in the bay each year. Clarity of the
water is sampled by a white disk that is
lowered over the side until it disappears
from sight. Needless to say they are
quite pleased with the bay clarity since
those horror years of the brown tide. I
asked how the bay was doing since
those dark days and the reply was,
"Much better!" A sampling of juvenile
weakfish had improved from 500 during
the brown -tide period to an estimated
10,000 by the end of this season. An en-
couraging sign, we all agreed.
Down To Business
mince we were on location the new
- -' green net was lowered over the stern
with its red marker buoy to locate it
should the net break loose. Out it went,
reeling out cable until the 250 -foot mark
reeled off. Then the slow tow for 10
minutes took over. Everyone seemed to
have something to do. Boots and water-
DEC'S "DAVE WALLACE" —Some of you might have seen this white research vessel plying our bays. Its mission
for the past eight years has been to survey our fish populations in hopes of understanding the complex problems of
our waters.
proof coveralls were put on, wash -down
hoses were started up. Instruments were
brought on deck and the waterproof
recording notebook was put out ready
for use. A buzzer told us our 10 minutes
were up and the net was hauled in. Soon
the boards came up dripping and muddy
showing us they had done their job in
holding the net down on the bottom.
Once the "doors" were secured, the net
continued up till eager hands grabbed it
and with much straining and pulling, it
all came aboard. The prize, of course,
I asked how the bay
was doing since the
dark days of brown
tide and the reply
was, `Much better!'
was in the small mesh net at the end,
and with all hands heaving, it was
thrown up on a big sorting table and
opened up.
The majority of what spilled out,
snapping and crawling, was the small
speckled sand or lady crabs that I'm
sure everyone at one time or another has
seen or been nipped by. In every haul
we made that day they were the
overpowering majority. To my way of
thinking they seem to be the No. 1
predator in the bay, but then I'm not a
marine biologist. Through the maze of
squirming crabs, I could see four or five
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long, silvery fish that, when examined
closely, proved to be juvenile weakfish.
How good it was to see them. It
reminded me of when we were kids and
were snapper fishing; we'd occasionally
catch these small, finger -long weakfish.
These small weakfish were a prime
concern to the researchers and every
single one was carefully counted and
measured and immediately thrown
overboard.
Then I noticed a round, white golf -
ball -sized fish that I immediately recog-
nized as a baby puffer or blowfish.
There was a time in our bays when
these were considered pests to the bot-
tom fishermen. Then they were found to
be good eating and people caught them
by the bucketful. Today we scarcely
ever see them.
Flounders and Windowpanes
There were small three- to four -inch
slippery, winter flounders with their
counterparts, the windowpanes. These
are shaped like a flounder but much
thinner and almost transparent, so much
so it seems as though you can look
through them; therefore, the name,
windowpane. In some of our tows
there'd be baby porgies an inch or so in
length along with a few baby bunkers.
Bunkers were once caught up and down
our coast by the millions and spurred a
multimillion - dollar fish industry with
Greenport being one of its principal
ports of call. Today those fishing fleets
are gone.
As we waded through the mass of
fish, crabs and comb jellies, a few old -
timers showed up, like baby kingfish
and sea robins. How I remember
catching those good- eating kingfish
years ago in the "kingfish hole" west of
Robins Island. We even caught some
small five -inch squid that I never knew
were in our upper bay. The smallest fish
we were to see (and they were in fair
numbers) were the anchovies.
All were counted and measured
except when it became too time -
consuming to measure all of them. Then
a 40 -count sample group would only be
measured and all the rest of the fish just
counted. The numbers would be called
out to a recorder who kept track of
everything that came aboard sounding
much like auctioneers at work.
There were quite a few six- to eight -
inch -long pipefish that are closely
related to the seahorse, and there were a
good number of mantis shrimp, those
animals that look half lobster and half
shrimp.
We even had horseshoe crabs, those
denizens of our bay that only show
themselves in the spring when they
come to our beaches to lay their eggs.
Two were leatherbacks (soft), showing
they had just shed their shells and now
were expanding in growth.
Our day was over too soon but it
showed me and reinforced my belief
that our Peconic Estuary is a vital area
for the fish and shellfish that go into
making our East End what it is — and
what it can be in the future if only given
a chance.
11RU chard Jonathan Katz
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