January 2023 Fishing

Eastern Welder and 

Dutch Girl have been coming into the sixth boro to rake clams for as long as I’ve been keeping a record, which goes back only to winter 2007.

It’s probably high time I get more info from the commercial fishermen themselves, but as speaking only as a photographer here, I associate winter and these boats in the boro just as I associate summer and recreational boats. 

Enjoy these photos, and as a believer in group sourcing, maybe I’ll be again blessed to have someone who knows this world of winter fishing

share some insights and information.  As with anything, there are stories to hear, just as in the harbor

there are clams to dig and surface.

Meanwhile, stay safe out there. 

Here’s the history perspective. 

Here’s the NJ state perspective. 

All photos, this week, WVD. 

 

Retro Sixth Boro 57

All these photos were taken in the second half of January 2013.  This 1973 livestock carrier Falconia was in the Brooklyn Navy Yard getting some work done.  I’d love to see a cargo layout for the vessel.  Also, just back from the foremast, those are large bales of either hay or straw for the livestock.   What would you guess her disposition in second half of January 2023?  Answer follows at the end of this post.

The tanker here is today in the Gulf of Guinea on a run between Gabon and Netherlands.  Kristy Ann Reinauer was scrapped in 2015. 

The green tug Mary Gellatly was transformed into the very busy CMT Mackenzie Rose. 

The behemoth Rebel has become Ken Vinik, awaiting a makeover in the Arthur Kill. 

The name of the hull–we’d spell it “Sovkomflot“–is one you will not see in the sixth boro these days, and it seems the icebreaking tanker is currently

anchored  where it has been for at least the past six months in Murmansk. 

The Penn Maritime Coho has become the Kirby Coho, currently in Savannah. 

Note the ice and snow on the boats above and below;  January a decade ago was frosty!  Barbara McAllister has become Patsy K, which I’ve never seen.  She’s in Panama City FL right now. 

It’s clamming time in the boro, and many of these clam/fish boats come out of this creek in NJ.  More Dutch Girl tomorrow. 

Grey Shark may be a dead ship or even a scrapped one by now, last recorded in the DR. 

And finally, Megan McAllister is alive and well, busy as Charles James.  

All photos from January 2013, WVD.  

And the answer to the question about the current disposition of Falconia:   she’s renamed Dragon and in Midia, Romania on the Black Sea, flying the Togolese flag, and still working, having just arrived in from Libya. For a tour of a much newer and sophisticated purpose-built livestock carrier, click here. More on this category of vessel here, and Dragon specifically on page 49.

For a disturbing report–if you choose to followup here–google Queen Hind livestock carrier, which capsized in Midia in 2019  and resulted in the “lost cargo,” i.e., death 14,000 sheep. 

 

 

 

Winter Solstice 2021

Winter solstice is one date I pay attention to, and yesterday demanded an undivided portion of it.  I was out on the sixth and primordial boro at sunrise, although when it rose, a gauzy film of stratus filtered the light.  I tinkered with the image a bit to enhance the cosmic eeriness.

Along the Brooklyn shore a classic barque and one of the latest of a classic line awaited.

Notice two tugboats and a lighthouse below?  One tug is shifting a fuel barge, and the other is shifting refuse boxes.

Start of winter or start of summer, the sixth boro is always a busy place.  Notice the fishing boat in this image, along with all the rest?

For some reason, these E-2C aircraft flew the North River up and then down and out over the Lower Bay.

Dutch Girl, a winter regular along with Eastern Welder, was hard at work.

Ava M. crossed the Bay from one job to the next.  Things are always happening on the water.

And all that’s glorious, but less than a quarter mile from the North River, not all seems to be happening well, and that needs to be acknowledged.

All photos, WVD.

 

Fall 2020 Fishing

Fishing grounds . . . the NJ Upper Bay portion of the sixth boro. Quick question to be answered at the end of the post:  how many commercial fishing ports does NJ have and can you name them?  Eastern Welder is a perennial boat here;  Hyundai Victory is one of the ULCVs newly recent here.

I can’t tell you the name of the nearer boat,

but it certainly shows the influence of the deadrise boat from farther south. Click here for a technical definition of deadrise.

Fishing from pedal kayak has surged in popularity, and

can be fishing where they’re not expected.

Bjoern Kils and I on the New York Media Boat Defender visited the nearest NJ commercial fishing port, Belford NJ, the other day.

Although Belford has a lot of boats, it is NOT NJ’s largest fishing port. More on that assignment in an upcoming post.

Belford Creek is home to a diverse set of fish boats.

Given the trail of gulls following Trisha Marie, fish are being cleaned during the ride back to port.

Note the VZ Bridge and the Manhattan skyline visible from the Belford Channel.

Meanwhile dozens of small boats fish the Lower Bay this time of year, while whales gorge themselves on all the bunker in the Bay.

So . . . besides Belford, the other NJ commercial fishing ports are Point Pleasant, Viking Village in Barnegat Light, Atlantic City, Cape May/Wildwood, and Port Norris.  Viking Village is the largest at this time.  Belford is the newest.   More here. Looks like I need to do some more gallivanting . . .

If you’re looking for a non-traditional food for T’day in this non-traditional year, get fish.  It may not be all that non-traditional. Here‘s info on the Belford Seafood Co Op.

All photos and sentiments, WVD.

Spring Fishing 2020

It’s the sheer diversity of traffic on the sixth boro that keeps me coming back, although diverse does not mean unpredictable.  In summer, mermaids gather, specifically around the very day of the solstice.  In winter, fishing boats come .    In fall, the fishing boats are of a different sort.

Chele-C was fishing on the west side, and

 

Phyllis Ann over on the east

with Dutch Girl and

 

 

this boat I could not identify.

Eastern Welder has been a fixture in winter fishing as far back as I can remember.

 

Osprey are well known for their fishing ability, so I should not

have been surprised to also have seen HSV Osprey out extracting from the depths.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

 

Fishing February

I’ve done lots of fishing posts, mostly about this unlikely estuary, where I’ve never fished.

Here’s Virginia Sue heading past Sakizaya Champion and out

 

the Narrows.  By the way, I’m planning a post on that fort in the distance some day soon.

Dutch Girl is a regular here,

as is the unlikely named but frequently seen Eastern Welder. 

 

Speaking of fishing, here’s my most recent Professional Mariner story on a group of guys who catch-and-release great big white fish.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Here and here are some related posts from six years ago. And why not another about a boat I’ve not noticed yet this year, Miss Callie;  keep in mind, I’ve not been out that much myself.

 

Names 30

This Dutch Girl might be lost . . . parked along the Calcasieu (CAL-ca-zew) River in Cameron, LA.  Anyhow, she’s not to be mistaken for the Dutch Girl that fishes the sixth boro in the cold months.

Pretty Jewelry . . . getting caught by false promises can be trouble . . .  Click here for the rest of the Pretty  . . .  fleet. Thanks to Ashley Hutto for this photo.

Overdie .  . sounds frightening, even for a scrapyard.  But here’s the context . .  it’s not English.

On The Rocks, not an auspicious name for a boat, ever.  Yet, a glance at the Coast Guard records shows over 40 boats in their registry with this name!!   Thanks to Justin Zizes Jr. for this.

And Atchafalaya, although it sounds like Louisiana, well . . . I took this photo on the Kills about two years ago.  I’ve no idea whether Atchafalaya has headed south to its namesake wetlands.

Names . .  are just . . . names.

Recently, great names like Herman Hesse, Ever Lasting,  . . .

Eastern Welder

I first had a photo of Eastern Welder here in a post from almost 7 years ago.  And I had the photo below all lined up back on the first day of the season, but I snapped it after my subject had left the frame.  Oh well, I put this here to show what the salt pile looked like–all tarped–before the ice season began.  Hundreds of thousands of tons of salt have moved in and out there since.  The white hulled vessel is Dutch Girl.  Here and here are more sixth boro fishing posts.

And here’s our subject.    The photo above and below were taken on December 1, 2013.

And the rest of these I took this past Sunday.

It’s hard to believe the New York Bight can be so glassy smooth sometimes.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

Fishing December 2013

Here was the last fishing post I did.  Fishing is only a winter activity in the sixth boro.  Here Dutch Girl pulls a net past the French woman and

then heads back.

And this looks like Virginia Sue, she of classic lines.

Enjoy.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp, who might have enough unused fishing fotos from Brazil to do another post about them.  I have got to check.

20-Something Dutch Girl

. . . a 49.9′ fishing vessel built in 1991 and  living in Belford, NJ, may not be the first association you had with this title, but here she was in port about a month ago, and

here she was this morning in close proximity with a 964.5′ three-year-old

container ship called NYK Romulus.

But one goes where the first are.  Lime green hull in the distance, along the KVK is BW Amazon.

Here . . . she passes at Fox Boys.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp.

Some related posts can be found here and here.  Or . .  just type fish into the search window upper left.