The Fish Story
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•January 9, 2019
May Peace Prevail When Beach Smoke Clears; Pipeline Tunneling Begins Beneath Barnegat Bay
SNUFF IT: As of here and now, the state of New Jerseyprohibits smoking of any ilk on all beaches and within state parks. Even smoking on the walkways to/from beaches is verboten.
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•December 19, 2018
Black Soldier Flies Could Make Us Insectivores; The Time Everyday ‘Fish’ Sold for $1,020,000
DON’T BUG ME: I’m a proud pescatarian, going on 50 years now. That technically means I rely on fish as my prime protein. By proper and permissible extension, I can also savor seafood of many a sort…
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•December 12, 2018
Whacked-Out Snowy Owl Fallout; Tracking a Possible Bobcat Presence
SNOWY OWL SCAT: It’s hard to think of royal snowy owls as whack-o magnets, but they have become that for me. Without fail, so much as mentioning them in here looses some bird brains. My daring…
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•December 5, 2018
Snowy Owls Act as Gateway Wildlife; Mind-Boggling Nights Beneath Sputnik 1
Last week, I got some fine ganders at much-beloved snowy owls, arriving here on wintery winds. I saw two of them down Holgate way, both females, which have more flecks of black on their snowy…
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•November 28, 2018
Welcoming Back the Original NJ Fishermen; CHANJ Seeks to Get Nature Together Again
WELCOME, LENAPE: Just a quick and highly-belated welcome officially home to the state’s 3,000-member Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation. The Lenape were the first of NJ’s “local” fishermen, dating…
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•November 21, 2018
Oh, So Close Is a Good Thing; Bad Bassing Leads to Poachers
The clock is ticking down, signaling the need to rush out and nab a Thanksgiving striped bass.
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•November 7, 2018
Here’s Hoping We Can Help the Limulus; LBI’s Surf Bassing Has Hit the Crapper
Imagine enduring on Earth for some hundreds of millions of years only to suddenly be catastrophically put upon by a beast more dangerous than any of the planetary extinction events you’ve survived.…
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•October 31, 2018
High-Energy Debate Over Electrical Fishing Methods; Good Thing That Storm Was a One-Day Fast’easter
This is a mildly but effectively shocking story regarding a commercial fishing method that’s all the buzz in Europe. As we ponder humanely buzzing lobsters with cannabis before boiling, folks abroad…
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•October 23, 2018
Hot Philly Bugs on Black Market; Rare Red Drum Need 500,000 Recruits
So, I get this odd email and a Huff Post news clipping from a gal who cohabitates Philly and LBI. Referencing my blogs on illegal wildlife trade, she passed on news of a theft from the Philadelphia…
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•October 17, 2018
The Man Who Couldn’t Resist Egg-Napping; What’s Behind a Massive Mullet Showing
I have to begin this week with some worldly weirdness – and a rotten-egg kinda guy. A friend across the pond with the BBC sent me this scrambled story. It’s about an obsessive-compulsive man and his…
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•October 9, 2018
China’s Exotic Traditions Mauling Rare Wildlife; Holgate Eroding Into the Sunset
SHARK FIN SOUP STILL MENUED: The latest report card on efforts to quell the shark-finning crisis indicates minimal gains in stopping the slurping madness. By the critical reckoning of shark savers…
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•October 3, 2018
Colombian Cartel High on Totoaba Fish; Little Egg Harbor, Manahawkin Bay Losing Identity
It might be the ultimate indicator in how valuable smuggling animal parts can be. One of the highest-ranking members of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel was recently arrested for complicity in a…
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•September 25, 2018
Weird Case of Indian Chitals in NJ; Waxing Nostalgic on Grandma’s Reusable Shopping Bag
GET CLASSY: It’s time to get seriously Classic. I’m talking the upcoming Long Beach Island Surf Fishing Classic – upcoming as in next weekend. I know, where does the time fly? If it’s smart it goes…
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•September 19, 2018
It’s a Time for Salmonologists to Dine On; When Sheepshead Ruled Bayside Fishing
I gotta go gastronomic this week, which I’m always prone to do since seafood is my only foray into non-vegetable dining matter. I last ate meat when Lyndon Johnson was in season. Anyway, being a…
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•September 12, 2018
A Weekend Worth of Downright Crappiness; Hurricane Flo Could Get Floodwaters A-Flow
That was a certified crappy weekend even among crappy weekends. And we’re on a slow track toward more upper-level crapification should the remnants of H. Florence – and hopefully nothing more than…
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•September 4, 2018
Nothing Terminal in This Groin Project; Black Flies De-People Beaches
With the tourist season on the outbound lane, it’s time to talk the local talk, beginning with the growingly controversial proposed terminal groin for the south end of Holgate proper, i.e. the…
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•August 29, 2018
When Sharkers Reach Hazardous Release Points; Nature Awesomely Struts Its Stuff for Beachgoers
I have a quick follow-up to last week’s shark-bites-angler tale out of Surf City. Added incoming info suggests it might have either been a selfie gone wrong or a 4-foot-ish brown shark taking umbrage…
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•August 15, 2018
As If There Aren’t Enough Bloodsuckers Already; The Bread of Life Might Include Cockroach Parts
NEW BLOODSUCKER: It’s a vampire that starts out the size of a poppy seed and sucks blood until it’s up to pea-sized. Let’s have a round of contemptuous applause for the newest and most expandable…
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•August 7, 2018
LBI Flooding Gets Complicated; Ins and Outs of ‘Littler’ Egg Inlet
SOUTH-END NOTION: I attended a meeting of the Island’s joint taxpayers. (See related story this issue.) It tentatively focused on our increasingly chronic roadway and back bay nuisance flooding.…
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•July 31, 2018
Hunters, Birders Circle Wetlands Wagons; Headboat Tradition Craves Last-Gasp Love
It could be that wildlife and wilderness areas won’t survive without the bedfellowing of some diametrically opposed folks. I’ll explain.
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•July 25, 2018
Surfcasting Preferences Are Sleeping in Your Genes; Cow-Nosed Ray Days Are Here Again, Sharks Included
OWLS AND LARKS: The time of day you prefer to do fun things, like surfcasting, might be in your genes. I first awoke to this concept listening to an NPR interview with Matthew Walker, director of UC…
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•July 18, 2018
When Media Comes Down With Necrotizing Fasciitis; Manmade Meat Moves From Laboratory to Memphis
Sorry, but I’m compelled to start this week’s column on a highly bacterial note. I’m hoping to rein in a media-spread strain of misinformation before it goes overly viral. It stems from a truly…
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•July 11, 2018
AD/HD Bluefish Know No Boundaries; Even Great Whites Have Real Bad Days
I’ve been bending over backward looking for upside angling things. The most I could find – without going offshore fishing – is some so-so-ness, with moderate-at-best hooking on the fluke front, our…
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•July 3, 2018
Chew Like Your Wallet Depends On It; When Blowfish Ruled the Bay
CHEW LIKE YOU MEAN IT: After 30 years of this-here columnizing, it can get iffy coming up with ne’er-before-told subject matter. With that in tired mind, I proudly bring you one of the oddest…
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•June 27, 2018
Proselytizing Into the July 4th Weekend; A Herp Has Its Official Day in Trenton
It has been one weird week. I was contacted about the $29.95 YourAncestry spit-kit I mailed in. It read: “Mr. Mann, we’ve just gotten the results of your ancestry search and regret to inform you that…
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•June 20, 2018
A Race for the Rocks Might Arise on LBI; Using Earthquakes to Rattle the System
SHOWDOWN AT BIG ROCK: When it comes to erosion mitigation on LBI, it could lead to a race for the rocks. In fact, why not make it into a quasi-classic north versus south thing, as in Barnegat Light…
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•June 13, 2018
Cyclones Taking It Way Too Slow; Zinc Oxide Takes on a New Face
We’ve all sat there, pinned to TVs, following the track of approaching hurricanes. Many nail-biters are playing the stay-or-not-stay game of chance, with the answer blowing in the wind.
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•June 6, 2018
The Killing Side of Sunscreens; Making Bread With a Bolo Knife
As we pick away at the insanely expanding selection of sunscreen products – I’m going hoity-toity with Shiseido 50 SPF select, found near the checkout at TJ Maxx – one of the most unlikely places in…
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•May 30, 2018
Our Memories Might Soon Be in Other Minds; Terminal Groin Is Either Coming Soon or Not
IF MEMORY SERVES ME WELL: The following is mind boggling in a highly mind-boggling manner. There are some scientists who have, possibly inexplicably, managed to remove the memories from one sea snail…
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•May 22, 2018
Of Mice, Men and Mosquito Bites; Red Drum Warm to Climate Change
Of MICE, MEN AND MOSQUITOES: At times, science seems hell bent on proving and further proving the obvious. Take for itchy instance, just this month, when a study out of Baylor University of Medicine…
