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!