Lophius

A fellow dock prowler and I are baffled at the history of the boat in today's picture. As I was making my waterfront rounds on December 15, I spotted a boat on a trailer at Children's Beach. I have never seen her here before neither has my prowler friend. I did a bit of research on the hull type and found out that she's a 26' Stanley Pulse Craft aluminum boat. Take a look at their website
here
Her name is Lophius which is part of the scientific name for the Anglerfish. The full scientific name is Lophius Piscatorius. I have no idea why this boat was here and I have never seen her since. If anyone has any information on this boat, please leave a comment in the comment section.

Straight Wharf Pigeon Update: I saw him down there today waddling around getting a free meal. He has gotten a lot heavier since I saw him a few weeks ago. I need to find some fat free food for him as does everyone else who feeds him. (or is it a her? I dunno).

A good amount of bay scallop boats were out. 15 in Town and 4 in Madaket. I know one guy made the journey all the way from Town to Madaket in his boat early this morning. I'm thinking he did not find anything out there because I saw him steaming along the north shore headed back to Town at around 10:30 am. He was still out at 4:00 this afternoon. Thats a long way to go in search of scallops. And an expensive boat ride seeing that the price of fuel is over three dollars a gallon now. I was speaking to a scalloper at noontime today and he showed me 3 sea urchins he had caught in his dredges today. I've only caught one sea urchin in all the years I've been scalloping. To catch 3 in one day is rare. He also caught two really nice old bottles. I wonder how many years those bottles were on the harbor floor.

The Ruthie B is currently sea scalloping. She left sometime yesterday as there was a good weather window. You need to keep a good eye on the weather and pick your days to fish this time of the year. They are steaming 8 hours to reach the grounds. You don't want to be down there when it's blowing hard. Although the captains of the big New Bedford boats would not give it a second thought. It's amazing the slop some of those guys will fish in.

I noticed Brant Point CG moved their fleet of boats into the Boat Basin today. That is always a good sign that a lot of S or SE wind is approaching us.