A Do and Don't List on Local Collecting

[Paul B]

Pedro that lighthouse is the furthest place east in the states other than Maine which is a little further and north.
Yes that place I collected yesterday is similar to the place I collected with Domboski except the place yesterday was 100 miles east of there and much cleaner being right on the Atlantic. The place in the article was all the way up in the western Long Island Sound right on the City Limits Of New York City.
Montauk is very clean but the lagoon I collected in was kind of a tidal marsh full of reeds and other vegatation which was rotting. You had to walk on planks or you would sink in the very fine mud.

The NSW you can collect right off that lighthouse would be the cleanest water you could get. If you dive here the visability is about 50' unlike the western sound which is under fifty inches.
The closest land from this lighthouse (Other than the land it is on) is Block Island which is miles out and the north coast of the States which is about 30 miles north.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

That fish was caught in East Creek, Cutchogue. My family has a summer place there, and go fishing there as often as I can. That has so far been the only sick fish I've caught....it looked healthy, but did not fight hard..in fact it had been snagged rather than hooked in the mouth. It was unusually large for that time of year (3 lbs...all the other blues in then were around 1 lb). I take that back....many years ago I caught (again unusually large for the time of year) a 6 lb blue. It did not fight hard (for its size, that is), and turned out to be emaciated. The head alone was that of a 10-12 lb fish, but the body was super thin, and the flesh was white...needless to say I was afraid to eat it. Nothing unusual in the viscera, though.

 

[Pedro Nuno Ferreira]

Pedro that lighthouse is the furthest place east in the states other than Maine which is a little further and north.

Hi Paul ;-)
Thank you for the information about the place and the lighthouse. I've got several books about lighthouses, and their history, etc...so this is precious information to me, I shall study Montauk Lighthouse further

Yes that place I collected yesterday is similar to the place I collected with Domboski except the place yesterday was 100 miles east of there and much cleaner being right on the Atlantic. The place in the article was all the way up in the western Long Island Sound right on the City Limits Of New York City.
Montauk is very clean but the lagoon I collected in was kind of a tidal marsh full of reeds and other vegatation which was rotting. You had to walk on planks or you would sink in the very fine mud.

Just as I thought, from your description we do have a similar mud over here and I used to collect local cockles in this mud which is abundant in Ria de Aveiro, a natural lagoon I get across every working day as I work not far from it further south in Aveiro town (it extends between 18 and 50 miles from my place), bellow you can see people collecting cockles in the mud

nowadays it is forbidden to collect during certain periods of the year because of food poisoning due to dinoflagellates toxins in the tissues of the cockle - PSP Biotoxins - so one has to check with the authorities to know when it can be done safely and legally.

Here you can see someone collecting cockles in the mud, but south of Lisbon...the conditions are similar...mud and more black sticking mud .

Bellow you can see an "air born" image of the place, S?o Jacinto, (its the inland lagoon that receives both fresh and marine water, so it is both brackish, and marine)

Bellow a satellite view (the grey water is either marine or brackish, the green water inland is freshwater)

Satellite view

I'll go there during holidays to get some more detailed photographs

So if I well understood, you collect the surface layer up to 1/2" deep and you place it in you tank as a replenisher of bacteria, etc...? What amount?

The NSW you can collect right off that lighthouse would be the cleanest water you could get. If you dive here the visability is about 50' unlike the western sound which is under fifty inches.
The closest land from this lighthouse (Other than the land it is on) is Block Island which is miles out and the north coast of the States which is about 30 miles north.

Now that's a natural treasure you have there, very good indeed, very beautiful

Cheers
Pedro Nuno ;-)

 

[Paul B]

Pedro, that particular place has very fine mud so the hydrogen sulfide is only a half inch down. I ususlly collect in other places where the mud is not so fine and you can dig down a foot before you hit hydrogen sulfide.
I collect bacteria many times during the year to add to my reef.
I believe that is one of the main reasons it reached 39 years old.
Here is another light house for you. This is Execution Lighthouse in the western Long Island Sound. I do much of my diving here. It was commisioned by George Washington after the revolutionary war.
It is automatic like all US lighthouses but I have been inside and it was full of WW2 radio equipment.

 

[Beaun]

I would be carefull about getting stuff from Georgica, its a brackish water pond that is only open to the ocean about 2 times a year. We did some trawling in there just before they opened it last for data collection and we caught some 6-12" striped bass, very cool since most people think that they only breed in the hudson.

 

[e.muehlbauer]

Those small stripers probably were spawned in the Hudson...they make their way down and then distribute themselves all over the region, in salt marshes and bays..and they seem to do it very quickly. I once caught a 12" striper in July..it had a tag. I sent in the tag (after releasing the fish, of course). The fish had been tagged the previous November, at David's Island...off Westchester. I caught it in July, in East Creek in Cutchogue, where the creek meets Peconic bay. The fish could have gotten there by making it east in the Sound, curving around Plum Gut, then swimming west through Gardner's Bay, then finally Peconic Bay. Or it could have gone south through the East river, and then through the various south shore bays until it reached Shinnecock, and then moved into the Peconics through the canal...either way, a long trip for a small fish....

 

[Orca1]

It's pretty cool how far a small fish can go in a short time. I've caught juvenile striped bass in Jamaica Bay when I was younger while seining. Really small......2"-3" long. At that size, their stripes are barely visible. We've actually caught entire schools of them (all released very quickly). Seining at night always produced more of them and also brought in some really weird stuff. Night netting normally caught more Northern Sennets, stargazers and the occasional squid.

I've fished my entire life and for some reason, picking up a live squid always gave me the willies.

Does anyone here have any success stories with Northern Sennets? I've heard from a few people that they don't do well in a tank.

................E.

 

[Domboski]

That is cool!

 

[Beaun]

The only problem is that the pond is only opend at the most 2 times a year. It would be very hard to believe that ~100 juveniles could swim from the Hudson all the way around to the Atlantic Ocean and make it to East Hampton, the exact week that Georgica Pond is open to the ocean. Also, why would a juvenile move from fresh to salt to brackish/fresh again.

We found it much more likely that adults came in and spawned while it was open. It's a very well know fact that there is always very good fishing there when they open it up. I'll post a GIS picture of Georgica so you can see how close it is to the ocean. It's funny, this areal was actually taken when it was open to the ocean in 2007. (sorry if the res. is bad, file restrictions)

 

[Paul B]

Totally cool, I did not know it was so enclosed

 

[Pedro Nuno Ferreira]

Also, why would a juvenile move from fresh to salt to brackish/fresh again.

Hi Beaun ;-)
Well because they are probably amphidromous fish like the Bull Shark - Carcharhinus leucas so they move between fresh and salt water during their life cycle, but not to breed. On the other hand the Striped Bass - Morone saxatilis you mentioned is an anadromous fish, so they live in the ocean mostly, and breed in fresh water.

• potamodromous fish migrate within fresh water only (Greek: Potamos is river).
• oceanodromous fish migrate within salt water only (Greek: 'Oceanos' is ocean).
• diadromous fish travel between salt and fresh water (Greek: 'Dia' is between).

• anadromous fish live in the ocean mostly, and breed in fresh water (Greek: 'Ana' is up; The noun is "anadromy")
• catadromous fish live in fresh water, and breed in the ocean (Greek: 'Cata' is down)
• amphidromous fish move between fresh and salt water during their life cycle, but not to breed (Greek: 'Amphi' is both)

From what I could glimpse by searching for Georgica pond images, it looks very beautiful and calm, but it looks like the sea is moving further and further in taking away the sand dunes.

Cheers
Pedro Nuno ;-)

 

[e.muehlbauer]

The salt marshes where striped bass spend their juvenile years are all brackish....I do believe that there is some spawning of bass in the Connecticut river....but I haven't heard of them spawning in the small Long Island rivers like the Peconic. If they make their way through the south shore bay systems, they will be sticking to the salt marshes, where they are pretty well sheltered. Except for the bluefish in the spring that are large enough to eat them, they really are pretty safe from predators there, other than osprey's.