Early Morning Seal Cruise

I had to wait for the temperature to reach 28 degrees (Town Law) this morning before I could go scalloping. As I was waiting, I went to visit the seals at the east jetty. I shot the above clip of them lounging on the rocks and swimming around in the calm water of the early morning. Sorry for the poor quality of the clip. I forgot my monopod again. Note to self: don't forget monopod before going out on a shoot.

The temperature finally made it to 28 degrees by 9:30 am. Nine of us were out fishing today. More than usual. The strong wind we had over the weekend cleared a lot of grass off of the scallop beds making the fishing much better. There was a small fleet of us fishing the north west part of Hussey Shoal this morning. Sometimes when you're on a good spot, there are several boats fishing with you. At times you can get very close to each other as this picture shows-

I had to throttle back as I was towing to let this guy pass. We all know each other out there and know what to do so we won't run into one another and get all tangled up. I remember back in the 80's fishing in a fleet of 80 or 90 scallop boats! You really have to be on your toes in that situation! Some guys are downright nasty and get very angry if you get anywhere near them while they are fishing. I knew one guy who is dead now that used to throw rocks at you if you came within a few yards of him.

I noticed a lot of seed today that I had not seen before. Next season does not look as bad as I thought. Here's a picture of some seed from today. The adults have already been culled into the wire 1/2 bushel baskets from the tow-


As I was out on the harbor today I noticed a camera on Brant Point Lighthouse. As I passed by the camera in my boat, a flash went off. I did not know there was a camera there taking pictures of every boat coming into the harbor and leaving the harbor. I talked to one of the guys at the Marine Department and he told me the camera was part of Homeland Security. I'm hoping that someday the Coast Guard will make the camera images available on-line for anyone to see. What a great place to have a web cam as well! Here's a picture of the camera on Brant Point Lighthouse-


Work started up again down at the new Children's Beach boat ramp today. If you were down there over the weekend, you no doubt noticed the huge white crane that showed up. The crane was so big and wide that it would not fit on the SSA Eagle or it's freight boats. To get the massive rig here, they had to remove the two tracks and load them on a trailer truck. The body of the crane was also put on a trailer truck. After arrival to Nantucket, the tracks were attached to the body of the crane. Here's a picture of the crane-


Work is going along at GHYC. I heard today that while they were driving steel sheathing deep into the ground, they struck a locomotive from the old Nantucket Railroad which used to run through that area.

No fishing boats were at the docks today. The Ruthie B left last night for a sea scalloping trip. Last trip they only caught 90# of sea scallops. Not enough to pay for the fuel! I hope they have better luck this trip and are able to catch their 400# limit.

Today's High & Low Temps
High 37.4
Low 24.1

That is all for today.