Tough Day for Hickory Shad

 

I went to the seawall on Wellington Avenue, Newport. This was the view topside:

The tall ship is the "Sloop Providence.'  My friends are crew on it. This vessel is a replica of the original ship of the same name.
It has a remarkable history During the time of the RevolutionaryWar it was at one tim, the only ship in the US Navy. Taking on the Brisits Navy, it sank or captured 40-British Ships. As John Paul Jones first command, this gutsy ship also captured Nassau, Bahams twice, and from her booty,supplied George Washington's army with clothes. The list goes on. Currently this vessel is Rhode Island's state flagship, and was used in "Piates of the Caribbean."

So this was the view topside.

Meanwhile, at my feet in the water, a dense cloud of hickory shad was under assault.

 by snapper bluefish like this one

 

A squadron of bluefish would attack this ball of shad and emerge from the fray, each with a fish in its mouth. It was grizly thinking that this was the shad's lot- to spend their day waiting to be picked off the the mauraders.

 

Here are more images of the shad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then this floudering fish floated by

 

 

It was trapped in a cellophane cigarette wrapper.

I freed it, took its photo, and set it free. It was a menhaden.