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scuttlebutt

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    A Look Back at the Quirks of the Season

    It’s time to haul out and sharpen our hooks for next year

    By

    It’s that time of year once again. Charter boat captains are doing all those little projects on their boats that there was no time for in season. Boats are beginning to depart their moorings and dock slips and are hauling out for the winter. We are a little different from most ports, as we have to travel all the way across the bay to get hauled out and stored — there are no nearby facilities on a scale big enough to handle all of us.

    We seem to be having more summer than fall weather, and that has kept a lot of seasonal boats in the water longer than usual. It’s a relief to be out of that awful pattern of howling winter-like easterlies and northeasterlies, too.

    This fishing season was a little closer to normal than we’ve experienced in recent years, though once again it looks like the fall run of bass will escape us, as the fish to our north have been taking different routes south to the Hudson River and Chesapeake Bay, where they spend the winter.

    The season had its share of unexplained quirks. Looking back, our spring bass run was good, but there were no big fish around at all. We had a lot of 25-to-30-inch fish in our waters; there were a lot of throwbacks.

    Bluefishing came back big this year, but another year without fluke has come and gone. Meanwhile, the fluke fishing east of Chatham was epic. I sure would like to know why these fish stopped coming into the bay.

    So many cormorants are living on the breakwater in Provincetown that anglers are finding few flounder for themselves. Here, a first-year Double-Crested Cormorant takes to a buoy. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    Flounder fishing was pretty good in the spring but less so in the fall. Flounder fishing behind the breakwater, which for decades was very good, has been decimated by the hundreds of cormorants living on the breakwater. That fishery is no longer a viable one.

    We have had a very subdued year for great white shark sightings, especially compared to last year. With increased tagging and spotting efforts, one would think the sightings would be up, but instead they were down. The hot spot for sharks this year seemed to be the east and south ends of Long Island. As gray seals continue to propagate and fan out to other areas, that will probably spread out the sharks as well. Friends in New Jersey told me they are starting to see more seals down that way. I told them they have no idea what they are in for.

    Sightings of whales in the bay were also a lot fewer than in a typical year.

    We did not have the consistent presence of mackerel and pogies (menhaden), as they scooted out midsummer and, to date, have not returned.

    What we did get instead was thousands of little baby bonito everywhere from the inner harbor to Race Point and beyond. It will be interesting to see if these fish come back to our waters when they’ve grown bigger. That could make for a great sport fishery in the fall, to replace the bass runs that now elude us.

    More and more blue crabs showing up here could also open up an entirely new recreational fishery. We certainly need something to fill the void created by not having fluke, flounder, or the fall bass run.

    Giant bluefin tuna fishing was pretty good, but the market for them has cratered to the point where many are thinking it’s not worth their time and effort anymore. High fuel prices and low prices for tuna are not a good combination.

    It’s time for me to put the boat to sleep and head back to the mountains. Stay safe and healthy and sharpen up those hooks for next season.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    On This Waterfront, We Get It. You Can’t Do It Alone.

    Of bluefish, tuna, mola molas, and the colorful characters who define the season

    By

    Fall is looming, as the days get shorter and the air and water temperatures drop a little more each week. September can be a tremendous month for fishing here. It’s a time when migratory fish are on the move, and that requires energy, which means they’re feeding more aggressively.

    We have had a great bluefish run this season, reminiscent of how the bluefish runs used to be around here, but this past week the fish did not settle into one place for more than a day. The most consistent fishing has been off the backside beaches around Peaked Hill Bar and Head of the Meadow. The bay has been wildly inconsistent, with big schools of bluefish found off the Pamet one day then the Brewster Flats the next.

    Tuna fishing also heats up in the fall, and giant bluefin were brought in from Stellwagen Bank all week. The market is still very soft for these fish, which mostly get shipped to Japan, and some buyers are even telling fishermen they aren’t taking fish at all until the demand starts to outpace the supply. Fishing for smaller, recreational-size bluefin has been excellent 12 to 15 miles east of the Outer Cape along the 100-fathom line.

    Boats at MacMillan Pier flaunted their flags in early July after the Portuguese Festival. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    I’m still waiting to hear about the first mahi catch to come in from out there, as our warming oceans continue to push these and other creatures further and further north. Flounder fishing remains very slow in the usual spots from the Pamet down to the bell buoy outside Sesuit Harbor. The black sea bass caught with the flounders have been mostly undersized throwbacks.

    Whales have pushed back into the south end of Stellwagen Bank, but we’re not seeing them in the bay or along the backside beaches.

    Mola mola (or ocean sunfish) are everywhere at the moment, concurrent with the major influx of jellyfish we recently experienced. Fish follow their food. Look for their floppy dorsal fins on the surface to observe one of the most bizarre-looking fish you will ever see.

    Some colorful characters work in and around the water here; that is beyond doubt. We lost one of them unexpectedly this past week: Stephen Ryan was one of the more interesting fellows to grace our wharf. A commercial fisherman who worked on Capt. Tommy Smith’s strike-net boat, the Sea Wolf, Stephen was also an avid photographer, a jewelry artist who just began selling out of one of the shacks on MacMillan Wharf, and a genuinely warm, friendly man who had a long history in this town and the Outer Cape.

    With Joe “Bones” Basine and now Stephen gone, the waterfront has lost a little bit of its color. Stephen will be very much missed around here.

    If you were at Bubala’s last week and saw a big table of laughing, boisterous men, that was our annual captains dinner, where many of us charter boat and commercial fishing boat captains get together to take a break from work and enjoy each other’s company. It’s heartwarming how well we all get along, despite being business competitors. What’s more important is how we understand that helping each other helps us all in the bigger picture. Maybe not everyone who works offshore gets that, and that’s their loss.

    I just finished my 50th year working offshore, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that you can’t do it alone, no matter how good you think you are. No man is an island.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Weathering the Weather and Keeping On Fishing

    This is the new normal; it’s time to start adapting

    By

    In a summer of relentless storms, the latest to hit the waterfront was what remained of Hurricane Ida. This one came racing up the East Coast and packed a much stronger wallop than was initially expected.

    Fortunately for the waterfront, the wind direction — it blew from the east at first, then quickly shifted to the northeast and north — was not so destructive to our harbor. We fared well, with only one private mooring failing, sending a small sailboat up on the rocks of the West End jetty.

    Provincetown’s harbormaster and staff righted a few boats after Tropical Storm Ida came through last week. (Photo Nancy Bloom)

    Once again, the newly installed wave attenuator proved to be extremely valuable, as the commercial fishing boats on the east side of MacMillan Wharf were able to stay put in their slips and ride out the storm safely. I came in off my mooring and tied up my boat to the Cee-Jay dock. I was amazed at how calm it was there, even through the highest wind gusts. In pre-wave attenuator times, that wind would have brought waves rolling into the inner harbor, threatening boats tied up to the finger piers.

    What needs to be reiterated is that this weather pattern is not an anomaly. This is the new normal. All the climate experts agree, and all the data concur: our new climate will continue to fuel more wind, more violent coastal storms, and more precipitation and flooding. Personally, I believe we are far beyond rectifying this situation and should shift gears to focus on adapting to the new world environment we have created and now must live in.

    We had one day of bad fishing immediately following the storm, but the fish went gangbusters after that. There was excellent bluefishing along the backside beaches from the Race to the Ranger Station. Water temperatures were somewhat lower because of Ida’s north and northeast winds, leveling off to the mid-60s, but coming from a very warm mid-70s.

    The bay seemed quiet and showed little bluefish activity, but the commercial tuna season reopened on Sept. 1, so the tuna fleet is back out in the bay off the Pamet. A few fish were taken there as well as at the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank.

    The new quota for tuna harvesting is 147.3 metric tons, and, as of Sept. 3, 24.5 metric tons had already been landed, so the thinking here is the fishery will reach the quota rather quickly, and it won’t be open for very long.

    The whales seem to be still avoiding our area. At the moment, they are much to our north. But an occasional minke whale has been seen in the Race, and a fin whale was spotted between Wood End and Long Point for a day. There are always surprises.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Bluefish and Blue Crabs, Too

    There’s also bonito out there, and a chance at more stripers as they migrate south

    By

    Happy days are here again. Bluefish are still solidly in our area, and catches have been fantastic. Can we officially declare the five-year bluefish drought over? I don’t think anyone knows the answer to that. When it comes to fish behavior, it always seems “we don’t know what we don’t know.” But right now, it certainly looks like we are back to normal — and no one is complaining, least of all charter boat captains.

    The bluefish are in all the usual spots, like the edge along Herring Cove, off the cottages at Beach Point, and off the Pamet. They have been in all depths from 20 to 70 feet, and there is plenty of food around to keep them here. Trolling umbrella rigs, casting swimming plugs, and vertical jigging remain the top three ways to catch these toothy critters. The fish have been mostly medium sized, which means four to eight pounds.

    Surface water temperatures are tropical in some areas, with some charter boat captains reporting readings as high as 75 degrees F. Bluefish like warmer water, unlike striped bass, so they may stay put for a while.

    Striped bass are still camped out down the backside ocean beaches from Peaked Hill Bar to the south and east, but fishing there has been inconsistent, which is to be expected at this time of year. We are all hoping that, once the cooler winds blow, ushering in autumn, the bass migration south will commence, and we will get a shot at some of the fish now to our north as they pass through. The migration has been good for us in the last few years, so let’s remain hopeful for a good fall bass run.

    A fair number of bonito are around right now, with catches being reported along the edge from Wood End to the Race and also off Cold Storage Beach in Truro. They are being caught by people targeting bluefish, as these two fish often mix and feed in the same places.

    Blue claw crabs like this one, caught in the east end of Provincetown Harbor, are showing up more and more here. (Photo Stephen Ryan)

    I am hearing more and more credible reports of blue crabs being seen and caught around here. This would be yet another example of a species moving north because of the warming ocean water. It’s hard not to have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, it’s another canary in the coal mine in terms of climate change, and that’s not good at all. But on the other hand, blue claw crabs are big business to our south, where going crabbing in rowboats is a popular summer family activity — it’s something I did with my dad all through my youth.

    Blue claw crabs are among the finest tasting in the world, but their meat is typically very expensive, fetching anywhere from $30 to $50 a pound at fish markets. This writer certainly won’t complain about tossing a couple of crab traps in the harbor and catching a few crabs to make pasta in crab sauce like Mom used to do.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Henri’s Wallop Is More Financial Than Physical

    Boats haul out, but squid, bluefish, and dolphins are here

    By

    The summer of big storms continues, with our first named storm rolling into the Provincetown waterfront over the weekend. Henri was initially predicted to hammer Cape Cod, but its sharp turn to the west made Westerly, R.I. the bullseye.

    Despite the reprieve, Henri’s damage was already done as far as local businesses were concerned. Private boats were encouraged to haul out and the Marina shut down and would not take in any transient customers. It’s hard to call a harbor a “safe refuge” when no one will take you in, but I suppose it’s not easy deciding policy when it comes to inclement weather.

    Whale watching, fishing charters, and sailing excursions all came to a grinding halt, and on a weekend no less, which added to the pain of this Covid- and storm-tossed summer. Our resolve is certainly being tested. With two weeks left in the high season, let’s hope we get good weather and a high number of visitors to finish up with.

    In the past, when we’ve gotten late-season storms like Henri, those who hauled their boats out simply didn’t want to go back in. They called it a wrap on the summer, which just further accelerates the end of the waterfront season. Time will tell if that happens this year.

    Henri brought us hardly any tropical rains, but there were some peripheral storm-related winds from the east and southeast. Nothing we don’t deal with fairly regularly here on the Outer Cape. Fishing for bluefish prior to the storm was excellent. We have a tremendous number of them here, and at the moment they cover a large swath of water. There are fish all along the back side to Peaked Hill Bar, as well as in the bay from the Race to Wood End and from the Pamet to Billingsgate Shoals.

    Don’t haul out just yet — there are plenty of blues around, and stripers showed up at the Peaked Hill Bar last week. This one was landed on the Lisa Zee. (Photo Russell Zawaduk)

    We also have a lot of sand eels and peanut bunker in the water, which should keep the bluefish around, eating. Striped bass also made an appearance on the Peaked Hill Bar last week, and charter boats were surprised at the size of the fish. Captain Russ of the Lisa Zee boated a 35-inch bass there, and we caught a few as well on the Cee-Jay while jigging for bluefish on the bar. Difficult to say if the bass will remain there, as the storm more than likely will create movements of fish.

    A lot of fin whales and even one humpback were feeding off the Race Ranger Station leading up to the storm. We had a huge pod of white-sided dolphins in the harbor last Thursday, probably due to the presence of lots of squid, a preferred food for dolphins.

    One big plus from a major storm like this: it turns the water over and removes stagnation in the water column, so it’s a sure cure for the hypoxia — a low oxygen state caused by high nitrogen levels — that was beginning to occur in the south end of the bay.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    An Anxious Week on the Wharf

    The effects of the Covid cluster are felt on the waterfront

    By

    It certainly has been a strange week on the waterfront. First, we are getting some weird sunsets over the water, as the atmosphere is filled with smoke from the Western wildfires. On top of reducing visibility offshore, it has altered the Sun’s appearance as it approaches the horizon. It has been dropping into the ocean as an orange ball with no corona and no refracted light in the sky. Let’s hope this smoke will clear soon and we can get back to our explosively colorful Cape Cod sunsets.

    Second, we are seeing the effects of the recent Covid outbreak on our waterfront businesses. The ferries appear to have fewer passengers than usual for this time of summer. The whale watch business has undoubtedly been lighter, and the charter boats are reporting canceled trips and reduced phone activity.

    We have felt the effects on the Cee-Jay, as our phones have been quiet and our passenger counts are down significantly from what they were in prior weeks. There is much anxiety on the wharf. No one knows if this is going to be a short-term bump in the road or a protracted event with potentially devastating results. One thing is for sure: it is a short season and we all need to get back in sync with how we were doing prior to the Covid uptick as quickly as possible.

    The fin whales have finally shown up in their usual spots from Herring Cove to the Race Point Station. Even the fin whale with the big white scar on its back from a ship strike has returned, and the whales have been close enough to see them from the beach. Look for the tall column of mist from their powerful spouts. Fin whales display some of the tallest spouts of all the whales.
    Lots of humpbacks on Stellwagen Bank lately, too, so the whale watching has clearly gotten better.

    The seals on Long Point appear to feel safe with a lack of great whites in our area. (Photo Mike Rathgeber)

    Fishing has been up and down this past week. The good days are very good, and the bad days are pretty challenging. Striped bass are doing what they do in late July, which is become scarce and finicky, and bluefish are making more appearances, but they still aren’t solidly in the bay. The hot areas for bluefish have been the ocean backside from the Race Station to the Peaked Hill Bar and beyond in very shallow water. They have also been in and out of the Race Rips. Stripers have been most consistent at Race Point in and around the rips. Mackerel remain MIA in our harbor and in the bay, so catching them for bait is difficult. As a result, there is more vertical jigging, plugging, and trolling going on right now.

    Anyone know where all the great white sharks are? It’s been a quiet summer so far for sightings and beach closings, despite more seals than ever before in some areas of the Outer Cape.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    The Bass Are Running in Huge Numbers

    Whales are scarce, but white sharks are appearing

    By

    Striped bass fishing dramatically improved this past week, with huge numbers of mixed-sized fish moving into the area between Wood End Light and Race Point. Most of the fish ranged from 26 to 32 inches, but every now and then a 35-to-40-inch fish was caught, as reported by all the charter boats as well as the Cee-Jay.

    The lack of big bass in our immediate locale has made a notable difference in the presence of the commercial striped bass fishing fleet. They have to catch fish of at least 35 inches to sell them on the commercial market. I can assure you there are very few fish of that size or bigger in our waters at the moment.

    Dylan Marra of Wellesley with a 44-inch beauty aboard the charter boat Ginny G. (Photo Capt. Dave Gibson)

    The best method for catching them remains drifting live or dead mackerel, although trollers using umbrella rigs and Jig-N-Eels had a good week, too. This past Saturday afternoon the bass bite was extraordinary, as all the charter boats from Provincetown limited out. At numerous times on the Cee-Jay that day, we had four and five people fighting fish at once.

    Mackerel have been inconsistent: here today, gone tomorrow, and back the next day, but the Horseshoe Cove and Long Point seem to be the best bets. There are a lot of squid all along the edge where the shoal water turns deep in the west side of the harbor. Bluefish have also done the here today, gone tomorrow routine around Herring Cove, off the Pamet, and south to the path off Wellfleet.

    Our ocean water temperatures took a nose dive when that northerly cold front came through. It got as low as the low 50s, but has since climbed back to the mid and upper 60s.

    Whale watching remains a tough gig. Still no fin whales in the stretch of water between Herring Cove and the Race Point ranger station, as we’ve come to expect. And Stellwagen Bank has not been very fruitful lately. There were a few whales seen in and around Peaked Hill Bar, but they didn’t stay long, despite there being massive amounts of food in the water for them.

    I was running a whale watch charter on the Beth Ann the other day, and the southwest corner of Stellwagen was teeming with life. Big schools of mackerel were chasing even bigger schools of sand eels, and tuna were chasing both. But no whales were seen in and among them.

    The number of seals here has grown exponentially over the last two weeks and, to no one’s surprise, great white sharks are now being reported at beaches including Head of the Meadow and Race Point.

    Last Sunday, the Blessing of the Fleet was subdued compared with its usual pomp. Boats were blessed at their docks instead of in the usual procession of boats going by the bishop at the end of the pier. I really hope next year we can get back to normal and have a Portuguese Festival and a Blessing of the Fleet that are more like the ones we had for years and years before the pandemic.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    The Trouble With the Bass Rules: Throwbacks Don’t Survive

    Mackerel and squid are here, and bluefish are close behind

    By

    Bass fishing exploded in our area this week. And the big fish have arrived. Capt. Nico Pace of the Cape Tip’n, Capt. Russ Zawaduk of the Lisa Z, Capt. Rich Wood of the Beth Ann, and the Cee-Jay all reported having to throw back bass that were over 35 inches.

    You might be asking yourself why in the world we are throwing 35-plus-inch bass back in the sea. It’s because we have a so-called slot limit, which dictates we can keep bass only if they are between 28 and 35 inches long.

    Rant warning.

    Our bass keeper rules are not working. I get the intent, which is to save the most prolific breeders — those in the over-35-inch range — and to protect the soon-to-be breeders that are under 28 inches.

    But here is why I know those rules are failing. On Saturday, the bass fishing was extremely good — everyone out there was catching fish. It was a weekend, so there were a lot of boats out, which meant a high number of throwbacks.

    One of many short bass seen floating dead on the surface. These are fish that are caught and won’t survive but must be returned to the ocean regardless. (Photo Mike Rathgeber)

    News flash: the throwbacks are not surviving. This was evidenced by the enormous number of dead shorts on the surface that day. If preventing mortality and achieving conservation are the objectives, we are not meeting them.

    You want a rule that makes sense in terms of addressing both mortality and conservation? I’ll give you one: one fish per day of any size. After that, you simply have to stop targeting them.

    That would mean, on a six-man charter boat, the first six fish end striped bass fishing for the day. After six fish are caught, you have to target another species. Or go in early. Same with party fishing boats — on mine, that would mean after the first 20 fish are caught, regardless of size, that’s it. After that, you have to bottom fish, or go after bluefish, or go in early.

    I am convinced that is truly the only way to end this ridiculous killing of shorts. When you catch a short with a hook in its gut, or one that’s impaled by a plug with three treble hooks, there is no way it’s going to survive. The way things stand, we throw that fish back in the name of conservation and end up feeding the crabs. What we are being required to do is absolutely ludicrous.

    Rant over.

    Bluefish are making brief appearances at the cottages off Beach Point and off Herring Cove, but they don’t seem to be staying. Tuna fishing hasn’t really gotten going yet, although boats are out there looking and waiting for the bite to start.

    Flounder fishing remains good in deeper waters off the Pamet, using sea worms or clams. We still aren’t seeing the fin whales we typically see around Race Point and Herring Cove, but we’re hopeful they will arrive soon. There is plenty of food for them there. Mackerel fishing in the Horseshoe Cove is very good right now. Squid are also in the harbor and under the lights at night.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Bluefish, Bass, and Flounder Fishing Improves in the Bay

    But whales have been mostly absent

    By

    Fishing is heating up, with bluefish showing up in the bay and keeper-size striped bass being caught more and more. In the last week, striped bass keepers were taken off the cottages and from Wood End to Herring Cove. Mackerel are still very thick in the harbor, so getting bait is a pretty easy task.

    We have an unusually large number of small striped bass around, and they seem to be everywhere. Cut mackerel or live mackerel drifted as bait is still the most effective method.

    Flounder fishing is good off the Pamet. The trick is to fish deeper than the cormorants can dive, which is about 25 feet. Where it’s shallower than that, the cormorants have pretty much mopped the bottom clean of flounder.

    Whale watching has been tough. The whales have been mostly absent from our local waters. It’s a big ocean, and they go where they go to eat and are constantly moving. I’m sure we will see them around eventually. It has also been pretty quiet on the white shark front, and there do not seem to be as many seals in our bay and harbor as there normally are in June. It remains to be seen how this will play out as we get deeper into summer.

    We have had a significant marine mechanic shortage nationwide even before the pandemic came along. Now things are worse. The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas estimates that about 31,000 jobs will be unfilled at boat dealerships this year, and that more than 85 percent of all open marine service department positions are for service technicians and mechanics. This severe shortage has led to chronic backlogs. A survey that the website Soundings Trade Only conducted last summer showed that 90 percent of marine boat dealers had a service backlog, and 13 percent of them said the backlog was longer than two months.

    It is encouraging to see that some of our local high school graduates will be attending the Mass. Maritime Academy in the fall. Skilled mechanics will always be in demand.

    This is a good time to remind everyone to exercise extreme caution when operating your boat in the West End area of the harbor in front of the Provincetown Inn, as those waters are filled with oyster and clam farms, which are marked by buoys. Running over them can damage your boat and the aquaculture equipment as well.

    Also, walking your dog on the flats at dead low tide and letting it do its business out there is not a good idea, for obvious reasons. Keep that in mind and the oyster and clam farmers will thank you, and I thank you.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    A Puzzle: Huge Schools of Very Small Bass

    The conditions are optimal, but the big stripers are MIA

    By

    Striped-bass fishing has gone from looking like it was going to develop earlier than usual to now looking like it will start a little later than usual. We are wondering what is going on. I checked my Cee-Jay logbooks, and by this time, in most years, we are solidly into keeper-size bass.

    Last weekend saw an enormous number of bass around. There were huge schools of fish off the cottages at Beach Point, off the Pamet, and from Long Point all the way to the Race rips. The problem was that all these fish were very small. The fish we caught were between 12 and 25 inches, with most being closer to 12.

    This is rather perplexing. Water temperatures are optimal, running from the low 50s to even 60 degrees in some spots. We have a fantastic amount of food in the water. Mackerel are virtually everywhere, and they are big and fat. Clouds of sand eels can be seen off Herring Cove, and I have even seen some squid in the lights at night off the town pier. Whale watch captains tell me they’ve never seen as many pogies up on Stellwagen Bank as they have this past week.

    Flounder fishing is pretty good off the Pamet and even better by the #1 buoy off Sesuit Harbor. Tautog fishing along the harbor breakwater, using green crabs for bait, has been steadily improving. I’m hearing about big bluefish being caught just to our south in Long Island Sound and Buzzards Bay, so I’m hoping they find their way into Cape Cod Bay soon, especially if the striped bass remain MIA.

    Right whales are now officially gone from the bay as they continue their migration north, so the 10-mile-an-hour speed limit has been lifted, and lobstermen can now set their gear and actually maybe make a living.

    A sad note: we have lost some legendary captains from our waterfront through the years, but none bigger then Joe “Bones” Basine, who died this past week. Joe passed away unexpectedly in Haiti, a place he went to help out following the massive earthquake there. He loved it so much that he went from visiting part-time to living full-time. But before that he spent decades running whale watch boats in Provincetown. He and I started about the same time, in the early ’80s. His musical talents were as extraordinary as his boatmanship, and he often played guitar and sang on the boat while working for the Portuguese Princess Whale Watch.

    Bones was often seen playing with the Jug Band in the old Surf Club, back in the day. Above and beyond that, he was a great guy with a big heart and kind soul. He had just texted me last week to offer his condolences on the passing of my mother, so I was shocked to hear a few days later that he was gone.

    He will be missed very much by all whose lives he touched in this town. Somewhere up there, Johnny Woods, Manny Phillips, Jean Frottier, Al and Aaron Avellar, and Bobby Cabral, just to name a few, and now, Joe Bones, are sitting in Heaven’s version of the Old Colony, having one hell of a conversation!

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    A Short Course on Dorsal Fins

    How to tell the great white shark’s fin from the others

    By

    We’re getting closer to our local waters being invaded by striped bass. An abundance of 20-to-24-inch bass have been in and around the Race, being caught on SP Swimmers, yellow Bombers, and cut bait. There are also a lot of mackerel and herring in the bay, and also in our harbor at the Horseshoe Cove. Squid are moving in as well in big numbers, so the food sources are clearly in great shape right now for the usual predators to come and eat.

    Mola mola fin.

    Still waiting for reports on flounder and tautog. But it certainly looks like a robust charter fishing season on the horizon, as captains are reporting lots of phone inquiries about fishing and whale watching trips. With the pandemic waning, people are ready to enjoy the outdoors.

    With summer soon upon us, the seals and great white sharks will also be arriving. In light of the high number of false shark sightings reported last year, it is time to go over the three most common fins we see in our waters and explain their distinct differences.

    We have three animals whose dorsal fins regularly break the surface of the water around here: the basking shark; the ocean sunfish, a.k.a. mola mola; and, of course, the great white shark.

    Basking Shark fin.

    The basking shark feeds on plankton, so it poses no threat to humans whatsoever — unless it physically runs into you. Its dorsal fin, although somewhat similar to the great white’s, has a very rounded-off apex, as opposed to the great white shark’s, which has a sharply pointed apex. The gill plates on the basking shark are also much larger and conspicuous than the great white’s. The basking shark’s gray-black coloration is fairly consistent top to bottom, while the great white is uniformly gray on its upper side, transitioning to white on its bottom side.

    The ocean sunfish or mola mola also has a triangular dorsal fin, which often breaks the surface of the water. Its dorsal fin, however, is very floppy. Observing an ocean sunfish from afar, you will notice the fin flop from side to side as it rides the currents.

    Greath White Shark fin.

    The great white cruises through the water at a higher speed than either the basking shark or sunfish, and its fin, with a higher amount of cartilage, remains stiff and perpendicular to the water.

    Whale watching is very good right now, with right whales shifting north and slightly west on their migratory path. On May 7, the Center for Coastal Studies aerial surveillance team detected 34 right whales in Massachusetts coastal waters, including six mother-calf pairs. This is down quite a bit from the 160 whales observed the previous week. Humpback whales and fin whales, however, are moving into the bay and down the backside beaches, feeding on the enormous number of herring and mackerel currently in our waters.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Keepers Reach Canal and South Coast

    Captains wait for news of this year’s Covid safety protocols

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    Striped bass continue to swim northward at an earlier than usual pace. Keeper-size bass have reportedly been caught at the Cape Cod Canal, on the south coast of Massachusetts, and on over to Rhode Island and Block Island Sound. Water temperatures are pushing into the upper 40s now, and with the magic number of 50 degrees and above almost here, and no drastic cold fronts imminent, things are looking real promising for an early season.

    The best lures for taking early-season bass are DaddyMacs, Crippled Herring, and Ava jigs with a green tail. Of course, live lining a herring or a mackerel is always a good idea. Don’t forget: you must use a circle hook when bait fishing.

    The Provincetown fleet of charter and party fishing boats are putting on finishing touches and getting ready to begin taking clients out. Capt. Rich of the Beth Ann is already doing whale watch charters while waiting for the fishing to get going. Capt. Russ of the Lisa Z, Capt. Nico of the Cape Tip’n, and Capt. Dave of the Ginny G are all looking at a Memorial Day weekend start, and the Cee-Jay will begin fishing trips on Saturday, May 15.

    It’s very encouraging to see how many codfish are beginning to show up in the usual spots where bottom fish are found and caught. Haddock fishing up on Stellwagen Bank is off to a good start, with many charter boats catching the limit, according to their reports.

    A large number of right whales have been feeding off Herring Cove and the Race, close enough to shore that you can easily see them from the beach. These highly endangered whales are on their way north to the Bay of Fundy and other areas. But when we get our usual spring plankton bloom in the bay, as is occurring now, the right whales stop for this highly nutritious feed. You can always tell when the plankton bloom occurs in Cape Cod Bay, as there is a very strong smell of melons when the wind comes in off the water.

    Due to the presence of right whales, there is 10-mile-per-hour speed limit for all boats in the bay until the whales depart for the north, which typically occurs by mid-May. Right whales are not nearly as fast moving and agile as fin whales or humpbacks, so boat strikes can easily occur; hence, the lower speed limit. Lobstermen are eagerly awaiting the whales’ departure so they can put their gear in the water. The ongoing heated discussion about lobster gear tangling with and causing deaths of right whales continues to rage, despite the data suggesting ship strikes are more responsible for right whale mortality than lobster gear.

    Covid safety protocols for the upcoming season on whale watch boats, party fishing boats, and charter fishing boats have yet to be determined, but the hope is the current vaccination programs will be effective and the rules for this year will not be nearly as strict.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Striped Bass Are on the Way Early

    Circle hooks will reduce released fish fatalities, but what about jigs that come with Js?

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    Spring in New England has come upon us in its usual manic fashion, vacillating between howling, cold, damp nor’easters and beautiful, warm, summer-like days. But the trend this spring has tended towards weather that’s warmer than usual, as evidenced by ocean water temperatures in the mid- to upper 40s — slightly above what we normally see in mid-April.

    The same trend is holding true to our south, and this is important to fishermen up here, because that means a very real possibility of an early arrival of striped bass. The striped bass we catch migrate here from the Chesapeake Bay area, the Delaware Bay area, and the Hudson River. The fish go to brackish areas there to spawn. We do get “holdover bass,” which stay here all winter, but they are small, sexually immature fish.

    The word from points south is that striped bass are way ahead of schedule. They are already catching them very well off of New Jersey and the south shore of Long Island. This would suggest they could be here by mid-May. The speed of the migration is purely temperature driven; as long as ocean water temperatures keep rising, they will keep coming north. A protracted cold snap, however, could slow the migration down a bit.

    New rules phase out J hooks but fail to address those on swimming plugs. An old-school lure with treble J hooks illustrates the problem. (Photo Alex Hay)

    Rules for recreational catches are mostly the same this year. We are still allowed one fish per day in a slot size of 28 to 35 inches.

    We still cannot use a gaff to bring a fish into the boat if we are unsure whether it is a keeper or not.

    The notable change is there are no more exemptions to the 2020 rule putting an end to the use of J hooks when bait fishing for striped bass. Everyone has to use circle hooks now. The reasoning behind this is that circle hooks have a tendency to not go so deep into a fish’s gullet, which, theoretically, should cut down on released-fish mortality.

    But this is where the rules make me scratch my head and say, “Huh?”

    If you are fishing for any other species using a J hook and happen to inadvertently catch a striped bass of keeper size on it, you are not allowed to keep that bass.

    And it gets worse. Because, conversely, if you are using a swimming plug, which typically has three treble J hooks on it, that’s OK to fish with. Even for catch-and-release striped bass not in the keeper slot size. Also, if you fish with a bucktail jig or a diamond jig you can use the traditional J hooks — they all come with them.

    There is no question that swimming plugs with their three treble J hooks are responsible for many of the fatalities that occur when a non-keeper bass is caught and returned to the ocean. How can a fish with its mouth and gullet impaled by as many as nine hooks possibly survive?

    The logic — or lack thereof — in these rules continues to astound me.

    The commercial quota for striped bass will be the same as last year, at 735,000 pounds. But there is talk of expanding the length of the season with one more day per week open to commercial harvesting of striped bass. Nothing, as far as I have heard, is written in stone yet. Stay tuned.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    When Waves Turn Minutes to Hours

    The loss of the Emmy Rose reminds us of our mortality

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    Winter winds and cold temperatures might keep mere mortals inside, but the demand for seafood keeps our commercial fishermen offshore, working to provide for an insatiable market. Working at sea comes with many dangers; throw in gales and bitter cold, and the danger increases exponentially.

    Which brings me to the F/V Emmy Rose. For reasons not yet determined, she sank 20 miles northeast of Race Point early on Monday, Nov. 23. Hailing from Portland, Maine, she was bound for Gloucester with a hold full of haddock, pollock, and monkfish caught around Georges Bank. The weather was nasty, with high winds and waves from an approaching cold front.

    The search has been suspended, and it is assumed the crew of four have perished in the unforgiving sea. As Gordon Lightfoot sang, “And all that remains is the faces and names of the wives and the sons and the daughters.”

    An event like this brings a deep sadness to all, but especially to the men and women who work offshore. It also brings a sense of uneasiness, because we are reminded how easily this can happen once the lines are let go of the dock and the boat heads out to sea.

    Anyone who has worked offshore for any length of time has had a “come to Jesus” moment when things went horribly wrong and the crew instantly recognized their mortality. We’ve all been there. I had my fair share of such moments while cod and tile fishing in January out by the Hudson Canyon, and evacuating offshore drilling rigs as hurricanes approached in the Gulf of Mexico.

    As Capt. Dana Pazolt of the Black Sheep says, “It only takes one bad hose clamp and one green bilge pump wire to keep you from getting home.” Capt. Mark DaLomba of the Dolphin Fleet knows that running in rough weather is a crapshoot. “We all can leave the dock with a healthy respect for the power of the ocean,” he says. “But we’ve all had those times when the waves turn the minutes to hours. It’s in those times your fate could be riding on the next wave.”

    The only difference between those of us who can talk and write about it and those who can’t is a little bit of luck. For that reason, few of us will ever judge a captain or crew who suffer a catastrophe, or try to guess what they did or did not do to avoid it.

    Commercial fishing is an extremely dangerous profession; according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, only mining is more dangerous. These men and women all know what they are signing up for and are betting they aren’t going to be one of the unfortunate ones.

    What I can tell you is that things can go from bad to very bad in the wink of an eye on even the best maintained boat. Losing a rudder, a propeller shaft backing out of the motor, a weld giving way from metal fatigue, hitting an unseen partially submerged object, a rogue wave crashing through the wheelhouse, or suddenly losing engine propulsion can quickly put a crew in mortal danger. In minutes, the best laid emergency plans can be rendered useless through no fault of anyone on board. It sounds good when you’re told at the dock that you just get in your survival suit, hop in your life raft, take your cell phone, and wait to be rescued. You might have two minutes to get off the boat before she rolls over in 20-foot seas. And you can’t find the survival suit in the pitch darkness and in waist-deep ice water.

    The Emmy Rose’s emergency position indicating radio beacon went off, alerting the Coast Guard. It deploys automatically when a boat sinks and floats on the surface, transmitting the position to rescuers so they can zero in on the location. Unfortunately, when they got to the location of the Emmy Rose, all they saw was an empty life raft. This suggests that things went bad too fast for the crew to safely evacuate.

    Our hearts go out to the families of the crew, and we hope they have the strength to endure this unspeakable tragedy.

    THE SCUTTLEBUTT

    Stripers Add That Crucial Extra Inch

    A summer of feeding has made many short bass legal

    By

    I have always said the summer season goes by in three blinks of the eye. The first time you blink, Memorial Day is gone; the second time, the Fourth of July is in your rear-view mirror; and the third time, Labor Day comes and goes and takes the summer with it.

    I will soon be wrapping up my weekly waterfront news column and heading up north to the White Mountains, where my real nonfloating home is. Some boats have already departed the marina for winter dry dock storage and called it a season.

    The fishing has improved somewhat over the course of the week. Bluefish are back in the bay and along the backside ocean beaches. Mackerel are back in the Race. Striped bass have seemingly made the Race and the Race rips their permanent summer home. On the bay side, there aren’t a lot of bass around, beyond what’s in the Race. The good news on bass is that many of the 27-inch fish we have had all season have eaten well here and grown to 28 inches. The extra inch has now made them legal to keep.

    Drifting mackerel is unquestionably the ticket here for these bass, and now that the mackerel are back close by, getting bait has become much easier. Huge schools of pogies are also back and are virtually everywhere.

    Beach Point has been uncharacteristically quiet for quite some time now for blues and bass. Bluefin tuna fishing has heated up, and the fish are close, as I have seen fleets of boats off the Pamet as well as off Beach Point this past week. The market for bluefin is still rather sketchy, and there was a day last week when a few giants came in and went unsold. That’s a lot of tuna to suddenly have to get rid of. But Mediterranean fish farming, a lack of flights going to Japan due to the global pandemic, and restaurants operating at significantly less than full capacity have softened demand and put pressure on wholesale pricing.

    Bonito continue to pop in and out of the bay side, but their presence is too unpredictable to specifically target them on any given day.

    Whales are back in the Race and can be seen from the beach, as both minkes and fin whales have been spotted cruising through the rips and feeding. Whale watch boats have had to go all the way up to the northern edge of Stellwagen Bank, however, to see humpbacks lately.

    The ever-growing seal population at Long Point. (Photo Mike Rathgeber)

    A dead minke whale washed up on Long Point this past week, creating a bounty for coyotes and seabirds and an awful sight and smell for visiting humans. Judging from the number of coyotes howling the other evening at sunset, I would be very careful letting your dog run free there.

    Has anyone noticed how large the seal population is getting at Long Point? And the comfort level they exhibit around humans? This can’t possibly end well, on so many levels. But time will tell.

    Now is the time for locals to get out and enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us, as work demands are reduced, post Labor Day. The air and water still have their summer warmth, and the sunsets are more brilliant than ever at this time of year. So treat yourself to all you can get before the cold northern winds arrive.

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