I simply could not locate in my library of pics any photos of the Squamscott River along the Swasey covered with fish shanties. I know I have a few, but from years ago.
Last year I had to hike in to Rocky Point to take a pic of just two shacks to inform a guest piece by Dave OHearn.
I just inquired of Dave as to why I saw no shacks this year or last year and Dave got right back to me.
No fish. Big unknown problem. My guess pollution. F&G (Fish & Game)doesn’t have the money to study. They are broke.
My buddy Dick wrote about it this past Sunday.
Here is an excerpt from the article .
“What is terribly worrisome is the apparent lack of saltwater smelt. And we mean lack of! And to our knowledge, nobody in the Fish and Game Marine Division saw this coming.
Why? Because a spring study that collected spawning smelt eggs in our smelt spawning freshwater tributaries was abandoned about five years ago.
Great Bay smelt supported an incredible recreational fishery and also a fairly lucrative but limited commercial sector as well. Smelt fishing was part of the basic fabric of this whole community that surrounds the Bay. And it’s gone! And nobody at Fish and Game seems to know why and to my knowledge there are no plans to recharge this smelt population by importing smelt eggs or other means. What a black eye for what once was a very alert and dynamic department.
Right now, Fish and Game are fighting to keep its department from being sucked into the Department of Safety, which more or less looks like F&G’s divisions that are devoted to conservation and public relations will be the very poor sisters to F&G’s Law Enforcement Division if this happens.”
http://www.newhampshire.com/article/20150322/NEWHAMPSHIRE0303/150329864/-1/newhampshire03
Mike
The Exeter Town Crier 