SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

UPDATED POST (7:28 p.m.): National Grid contractors are cleaning up 1,100 gallons of gas and oil that gushed into the waters of Paerdegat Basin, which connects to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, after an accident Friday night.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Erik Swanson told Sheepshead Bites that National Grid was cementing an older pipe when there was an unexpected discharge of hazardous materials at approximately 1:30 a.m. The discharge was a mixture of natural gas condensate, compressor oil and turbine oil.

National Grid alerted the Coast Guard, who sent a pollution responder team to the scene, along with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation inspectors.

The company hired Miller Environmental Group, a Long Island-based environmental response contractor, to clean the waters, which involves sucking the water-oil mixture out of the area to prevent anymore sheening or environmental damage, Swanson said.

The contractors will be working throughout today and tomorrow, but the repairs are expected to continue past the weekend.

Coast Guard and local governmental agencies will investigate the cause of the accident. If National Grid is determined to have caused it or acted inappropriately, they will be fined, Swanson said. There will also be continued testing of the waters to ensure the public’s safety.

Authorities are cautioning mariners and fishermen to avoid the area.

Original Post (5:00 p.m.): Authorities are telling fishermen, mariners and water enthusiasts to stay away from the Paerdegat Basin are of Jamaica Bay, following a National Grid oil spill. Here’s the alert:

Alert issued 9/29/12 at 4:45 PM. Oil spill contractors working for National Gird Corporation, under the direction of the US Coast Guard and the NYS DEC, are working to clean up a spill of oil and hazardous materials in Paerdergat Basin, Brooklyn. The public is advised to avoid fishing and recreational activity in this area until further notice. An odor may also be present in the area. There is no danger of an explosion.

We have contacted the Department of Environmental Conservation regarding the circumstances of the spill and are awaiting a response.

This is a breaking news story and may contain inaccuracies. We will update it as more information becomes available. If anyone has more information or additional photos, please send them to tips (at) sheepsheadbites (dot) com.

Tragedy struck the family of Yevgeniy “Eugene” Glebov, a 29-year-old Brighton Beach lifeguard found dead in the waters off the Rockaways yesterday. He was discovered by a tugboat crew after he disappeared setting off on a lone fishing trip this past Friday.

Glebov, a Staten Island native, was an avid spear fisherman who was known for his daring technique, which consisted of wading into rough waters without an air tank to hunt giant bass. An expecting father, Eugene planned to give up his dangerous hobby once his baby was born.

Eugene’s bravery in the sea extended beyond his fishing trips and into his summer job.

“Two weeks ago, he rescued a girl . . . stuck in a fishing net,” his devastated father told the Post. ”We were hoping for a miracle. We were really hoping he would be found alive.”

“The baby will be named after him: Eugenia. He was excited to be a father,” added Eugene’s cousin, Anna. “He wanted to drop his passion for a new passion.”

DailyDOCUMERICA recently dug up this old photo of Plum Beach, taken in May 1973 by Coney Island native Arthur Tress. It looks to be a part of the same Tress series as the Plumb Beach photo we showed you – also from DailyDOCUMERICA – in early July.

Looks like they’re having fun, but considering they’re fishing from what appears to be the DEP outflow pump near Brigham Street – which was still active at the time – we really hope this couple decided not to eat any of the catches!

Source: Jim Henderson via Wikimedia Commons

Folks strolling along the Emmons Avenue pier may notice the dinner boats, the restaurants and the swans in the Bay. And, of course, that local trademark: groups of fishermen, at the crack of dawn, continuing Sheepshead Bay’s traditional line of work.

The New York Times ran a profile of one of the fishermen, 28-year-old Kyle Kaltenmaier, who works on the Sea Queen 7, a party boat that docks along Emmons Avenue.

Kaltenmaier, who is from Woodhaven, Queens, is a first mate and an aspiring professional poker player. Better known as “Dolphin” to his crew, he reels in as many customers off the street as he does fish of the day.

The day the Times was there, he pulled 20 would-be fishermen for one of the Sea Queens’ three cruises.

On the boat, after the rods are hooked and baited, the lines are dropped and everyone relaxes, Kaltenmaier’s job is telling fishing tales like a modern-day Hemingway.

He talks about the whale he saw off the Rockaways and fishing disasters he’s had to avert with novice anglers.

As fulfilling as his life may seem, Kaltenmaier wants to take a break from the sea and spend more time in the casinos. As an aspiring professional Texas hold’em player, he wants to hit it big.

He’s been saving his fishing money and taking breaks in the winter time to work his card shark game in Altlantic City.

“I’ve tried it the past few years, but it’s just never worked out,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting the right cardS.”

Kaltenmaier said he got into poker after watching passengers playing on the ship. He got so good that he was banned from playing against his customers.

“Poker is a lot like fishing: part luck, part skill,” said Kaltenmaier.

From Newsday:

The fluke and porgy seasons open in New York waters Tuesday with less restrictive rules on the number and size fish anglers can take.

For fluke, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation cut the size of keeper fish this month to 19.5 inches from 20.5 last year. Anglers can keep four fluke of that size, compared with three last year. The season ends Sept. 30, same as last year.

… In January, the DEC said the easing was likely because anglers didn’t catch their full allotment last year. Some said that was because the larger size and smaller amount made fishing unfeasible, particularly compared with states such as New Jersey, which can catch more, smaller fluke.

“These regulation changes reflect improvements to populations of scup, black sea bass and summer flounder,” said DEC Assistant Commissioner for Natural Resources Kathy Moser, who added the scup, or porgy, fishery is “particularly robust.”

… The DEC also eased rules for porgies, or scup, doubling the number anglers can keep to 20 from 10, and extending the season to Dec. 31. The size limit remains the same at 10.5 inches for those on shore or in private boats. Those on licensed party/charter boats face an 11-inch size limit, but they can take 40 fish during September and October.

The DEC eased the black sea bass restriction to include 15 fish during a season that starts June 15 and ends Dec. 31, with a minimum size of 13 inches.

That should be good news to Sheepshead Bay’s fishing fleet, the operators of which have long complained that New York State’s heavy-handed restrictions hurt their ability to compete with nearby fleets in New Jersey and elsewhere. It hasn’t been all good news from the DEC this year, though; the agency tightened restrictions on blackfish in March.

CBS News’ Marketwatch blog put together a roundup of “unusual, creative locations” for business meetings, breaking away from the conventions of stuffy boardrooms and restaurants where you try to make your pitch in between shoveling sustenance into your pie-hole.

They queried a handful of corporate executives, including one who shared this anecdote about a business meeting aboard a Sheepshead Bay fishing boat:

While night-fishing
Recently, my business partner, a friend and I all went on a night fishing trip for striped bass out of Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. While we were on the boat the topic of domaining came up and after some discussions, our friend who is a domainer discovered that we were selling a portfolio. Before we got back to land, we sealed a deal to sell him the domain name portfolio. Not only was the trip a super fun time but it also provided us with a great business opportunity. –Ian Aronovich, CEO of GovernmentAuctions.org.

Sure, that’s one idea. And if you’re really nervous about the meeting – or if you get an offer that’s so awful you want to barf – well, you can just blame it on the waves!

Let’s make our own list out of this for all you Sheepshead Bay-based business men out there. What other unusual, creative business meeting locations can you think of in Sheepshead Bay? (Ed. – Don’t say Windjammer.)

It was way back in 2009 that Sheepshead Bites and Brooklyn Independent Television (a.k.a. BCAT) teamed up on the video above to tell the story of Sheepshead Bay’s struggling recreational fishing industry. With the help of Brooklyn VI’s Captain Sapanara, we identified some of the key issues facing the fleet, which shrank from dozens to just a handful in the last two decades. The causes included rising gas prices, cultural changes and a slew of overwhelming regulations that are smothering locals’ ability to compete with out-of-state fleets.

New regulations unveiled by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation recently have now dealt another blow, shortening the blackfish season by nearly four months, and upping the minimum size limit of each fish caught.

According to Courier-Life:

The state Department of Environmental Conservation shortened the 2012 Blackfish fishing season — which usually runs from October until April — for recreational casters by 70 days, forcing it to end in January. The agency also increased the minimum size limit of the catch by 2 inches, so that many of the Blackfish that were hooked had to be returned to the sea.

Charter boat captains say blackfish — which are also known as tautog and oyster fish and taste like cod or flounder — are a winter staple for fishermen trolling borough waters. Now that the blackfish season has been cut short in New York, their business has been cut by nearly 60 percent as recreational anglers go to New Jersey, they say.

“In a time of economic hardship why we’d want to send business out of state is beyond me,” said Greg Nardiello, captain of the recreational vessel Ocean Eagle, which used to troll for the ugly, but tasty, water breathers nicknamed “the poor man’s lobster.” “Blackfish is really the big ticket fish in the winter season. Now people are heading to New Jersey for it.”

Much like other regulations that determine the size and number of the catch, the latest rule-tightening is based on the population of the target species. The problem is that the data being used is either wrong or outdated.

Even the Fisheries Commission admitted that their numbers were off base: in a statement released on March 7, the agency admitted that their determination to reduce blackfish fishing by 53 percent was an overestimation and only a 37 percent reduction was necessary — meaning that the blackfish season could have could have extended.

Adding insult to injury, New York opts to follow more restrictive federal guidelines, while neighboring states like New Jersey determine their own rules – even if they’re fishing in the same waters. As many local fishermen point out, that often means a Sheepshead Bay boat might be anchored next to a New Jersey boat and casting into the same spot, but local passengers may only be allowed to bring home two fish, while New Jersey anglers can take home more.

According to Courier-Life, Department of Environmental Conservation officials will meet later this month to discuss the changes.

Reader Lina R. sent in the above photograph, which she shot yesterday. Apparently this guy was strolling Shore Boulevard by Exeter Street in the morning. Lina didn’t know how it got up there, but she said it was still alive and that she guessed a fisherman caught it and didn’t know what to do, which might explain the blood underneath it. She also doesn’t know what happened to it afterwards. We sure hope some brave soul with a heart managed to pick it up and throw it back into the water. Regardless, what a sight!

Avid Sheepshead Bay fisherman Robert "Bobby" Norris. Source: Staten Island Advance

“Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.”

~Herbert Hoover

It always makes me sad when another piece of our history — the history of Sheepshead Bay — is gone to The Ages.

I was dismayed to learn, while reading through the Facebook group “You know you’re from Sheepshead Bay when……,” that Robert “Bobby” Norris, a former resident of Sheepshead Bay and an avid fisherman, passed away on Friday, according to his daughter Tara Norris Mino.

Norris was 65.

Continue Reading »

A fisherman in Coney Island. Photo by Erica Sherman

Tell the truth — What section of Brooklyn has greater bragging rights, in matters littoral? I’ll give you a hint: It’s not Williamsburg, Park Slope, Dyker Heights, or Kensington. We’ve got the beach and boardwalk at world famous Brighton Beach and Coney Island, and is Sheepshead Bay not Brooklyn’s answer to the French Riviera?

I rest my case.

To that end, Sheepshead Bites is asking you — “[s]hore lovers, beach walkers, surfers, fishermen, divers and others” — to share your undying love of All Things Shore by helping the American Littoral Society celebrate its 50th anniversary with a special request: Participate in the coastal conservation group’s August 20th Share the Shore event by showing the world how and why we love the shore, and also by promoting new efforts to protect our ocean and coastline.

In other words, not to point fingers or anything, but let’s try and put an end to our fabled Coney Island Whitefish population, mmmkay?

From a press release we received about Share the Shore:

This is a free event open to all who care to show their support for the ocean, coastal wildlife and their habitats. Share the Shore is actually the theme for numerous micro-events that are participant-created and planned to happen all along the New York and New Jersey coast. In addition, event goers will be capturing their love for the coast in photos, videos and other imaginative ways — the Littoral Society will link them together to create a virtual tour of the coast and a powerful message about caring for the coast to share through social media and its website.

From Montauk to Delaware Bay, coast lovers will share their “sure thing for the shore” by getting together with their environmental group, club, family, friends and neighbors to do their favorite “shore thing” at the stretch of shore they love the most. Any and all activities are welcome; however folks like to express their admiration and respect for the shore.

Tell Sheepshead Bites about your Share the Shore event — we’d be happy to promote it for you. To register for an event in our area or create an event of your own, go to www.sharetheshore.net.