Recently, down at the Crabtown (north) end of the beach, a
mystery fish has been eluding both capture and identification. I have been
after it now for eight days. Yesterday, I went in early to the beach to give
myself a pre-crowd, pre-wind, low tide chance at the fish. After almost an hour of
futility, I gave up. As I was leaving, I heard a boat coming in fast through the mooring field, and the
moment I saw it, I recognized it as the state’s Department of Environmental
Management finfish survey boat. Last summer, I met up with them three times and
they gave me fish for the aquarium.
Captained by J., the crew of four makes monthly surveys in
the summer recording fish at a number of sampling stations located around
Narragansett Bay. I grabbed my buckets and ran over to where they were about to
set their 100-foot seine. It’s fascinating to watch and I was hopeful that they
might net some goodies for the aquarium. I was able to take pictures of the
operation.
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| RI DEM survey boat |
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| Surveyer dropped off on beach with seine |
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| The boat circles around |
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| The four crew then pull the seine ashore |
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| ...and dump the fish into this bucket. That's a puffer blown up. |
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| The bucket is brought onboard and each fish measured and identified |
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| The measuring board. |
On this day, their catch was correspondent with my recent
seining. They caught many kingfish, killifish, menhaden, silversides; lesser
amounts of puffers, sea robins, pipefish, flounder; and sadly, an expired
inshore lizardfish. I gratefully
accepted a large windowpane, a large kingfish, a smaller winter flounder, and
two medhaden that didn’t make it.
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| Winter flouner |
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| Menhaden |
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