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From The New York Shitty Inbox: Catch Of The Day
A chap named Erik writes:
Hi Miss Heather!
I’m Erik, a Huron Streeter and avid fan of NYS.
First things first, thanks for posting on the Green Sweep from this past weekend. My wife and I were captains on the cleanup, and I originally found out about it from the blog.
So thank you for publicizing that. Felt good to participate, even though we wound up being just sort of co-captains of each another on the clean-up. We hauled off many shits! I felt I should have said ‘hello’ at Red Star Sunday morning, but I guess I was a little under-caffeinated.
…Attached is a quick follow-up on your 6/5 post New York Shitty Photo du Jour: Gone Fishing
As I approached the site of the photo in your post, these Polish gentlemen were wrestling the line – they had a nibble! It was actually pretty vigorous. Eventually, after climbing all around the smashed concrete blocks, the older man pulled in a large fish which he identified as striped bass. These fisherman are evidently regulars, and have marked out inch-long hashes in sharpie on the top of the bulkhead /barricade, and they measured the beast at 36 inches. They were clearly planning to eat this thing. I left before the fileting began.
In a shared a moment of revulsion and incredulity, an onlooker wondered about the pollution, if the fish was safe to eat. I later learned that the bass are migratory, and only come into these ‘fresh’ water estuaries to spawn. They spend a lot of the time out at sea. so you never know. For more info on this fish, check this out.
I too have seen this chap fishing on the waterfront.* In fact I have seen him use the housing for the feral cat colony on India Street as his butcher table. Although he struck me as being a rather nice chap I could not bring myself to question why he would eat something culled out of the East River. Then again, I doubt whatever “added-value” this bass sports can be as terrifying as the crabs I have caught men catching at the Newtown Creek Nature Walk and the Manhattan Avenue Kayak Launch. (Yes, I really have seen this.)
Thanks for passing along this bit of Greenpoint goodness, Erik— and helping to make our neighborhood a little bit cleaner!
Miss Heather
*Last weekend one off his companions fired up the stereo in his pick-up truck and cranked ‘Wham” for everyone’s enjoyment!
Comments
2 Comments on From The New York Shitty Inbox: Catch Of The Day
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eagle_teater on
Wed, 8th Jun 2011 3:22 pm
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missheather on
Wed, 8th Jun 2011 4:21 pm
Ok just for clarification…striped bass are not east river dwellers. They are Atlantic Ocean dwellers and come up into the lower reaches of the Hudson, East and other inlets to spawn. They do not carry the pollution of the East River. The mercury poisoning of our oceans, yes, but unless you are chomping on stripers morning, noon and night, you’re fine with that. HOWEVER, the very same group of men, prior to striper season, were fishing for FLUKE!!! AND EATING THEM! Freakin fluke are bottom feeders. Feeding off the bottom of the East River. Puke.
A few years ago I caught a man “crabbing” over there. When I asked him about mercury, etc. he got very indignant and told me that these foodstuffs were perfectly okay to eat, how to prepare them, etc. He also blamed Riverkeeper for going on a smear campaign about the cleanliness of the East River, Newtown Creek, etc. Yup.
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