Let see, how can we adjust this ditty ...
Turkey in de straw, turkey in de hay
Turkey in de straw, turkey in de hay
Roll 'em up an' twist 'em up a high tuc-ka-haw
An' twist 'em up a tune called Turkey in the Straw
Woman killed in an apparent shark attack in Maine
The victim, whose identity is being withheld pending notification of her family, was swimming off the shore of Bailey Island, an island in Casco Bay, when she was injured, a witness told the Maine Marine Patrol. The witness added that it appeared to be a shark attack.
"Kayakers nearby brought her to shore and EMS responders were called to the scene where she was pronounced deceased," the statement said.
Shark attacks are rare for the state of Maine. The International Shark Attack File, a global database of shark attacks, only listed one unprovoked shack attack in the state. That happened in 2010, according to CNN news partner CBC, when a commercial diver working in the Bay of Fundy was attacked by a porbeagle shark. The diver was uninjured and captured the incident on video. Officials believe the shark thought the diver's camera was food, according to CBC.
The Maine Marine Patrol is currently investigating the death and no other information was made available. Swimmers and boaters are urged to use caution in the area and to avoid swimming near schooling fish or seals, the Maine Department of Marine Resources said.
CNN's Travis Nichols contributed to this report.
Tuesday, July 28, 2020: The heat keeps breathing down our neck, even on the Island -- though SE winds are kicking as the afternoon sizzles on. Those side-shore breezes should drop the beachside temps a solid 10 degrees, though the ocean is a balmy 75 (and up) meaning the cooling breezes will be modest at best.
Need to get early word out about a truly fun angle for the upcoming Long Beach Surf Fishing Classic. Get this: There will be significant tourney-long prize money for the largest ... wait for it ... kingfish over 12 inches. With this years great showing of these superfine tasting panfish, this addition to the prize schedule of the Classic, will add a whole new dimension to the nine-week event. Obviously, the early weeks of the contest will show kingfish the best.
As the sign-up window opens on the Classic, I'll be updating on the many tweaks brought about by the new striper slotfish regs, which I feel won't hurt the competition at all.
Our buddies over at American Angler are already about to cash in on the concpet:
Next Up for American Angler... Largest Kingfish Tourney for the month of August! Starts August 1st. Powered By Century Rod/Advanced Fishing USA. Members only.
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I wanted to pass on some mass-gathering pics I took at The Dike, High Bar Harbor, over the weekend. I need to further note herein that those packed in people had cleared out significantly by Monday, but not before leaving litter for conscientious folks to clean up.
Here's my early post: Talk about a once-secret bayside beach now out of the bag, this is The Dike, HBH, North End, LBI.
Did a stop over at the High Bar Harbor “Dike” … and took on a shock. The once-desolate beach was so packed with pretty much partiers there was little available room. There was even less room for in-water boats wanting to get close to the humble sand on the banks thereabouts. I recalled zipping there at the height of summer to sun and swim in sheer seclusion.
Walking the quarter mile of inlet-front beachline, I took the emotional friendly-guy high road, made easier by many folks offering friendly smiles and hellos as I hiked past, heading north to get a look at the dredging equipment now moored just north of Myer’s Hole – the deep water area right of the beach.
Oh well, says I, recognizing the area is a state park area open to one and all – made more so by COVID times when it seems a super-slew of summer appreciators are taking in the sunnier times before the murkier days of fall uncertainty move in
That said, it’s always disconcerting to see so many people gathering to heavily imbibe (food and beverage) with nary a sanitation facility to be had for relief purposes. I know that some boats have heads, but I didn’t notice many hunkered down beachers visiting anchored vessels. Instead, there was an untold number of folks periodically standing in waist-deep water.
On the cool side of things was the showing of dogs of many a breed. I checked carefully, albeit discretely, and I swear every dog layout had a bag or two of obvious picked-up poop. Nicely done.
And daren’t you think I’m herein exposing this beach to discovery. That boat sailed long ago. For localites, by fall, The Dike beach will again be nothing but fine fishing and lonely tumbling eel grass balls.
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Loads of shorts taken on the New South Jetty.
FEED ME, JAY: Unsolicited seeds are arriving from China. Hmmm.
Our homeland security sleuths have it on something akin to good authority that the unordered seeds haphazardly arriving from China, reaching an untold number of unsuspecting American households, could harbor genetically-modified plants, possibly presenting an agri-terrorism risk so subversive that only home-grown communists can be at the root of such an underground plot. They’re some bad apples.
As I’ve been warned, these sudden seeds might host engineered diseases capable of either wiping out our tomato plants … or all our nation’s forests and croplands, depending on which Homeland Security officer you talk with.
At the same time, some bleeding hearts see these wtf seed arrivals as simply a gesture of peace and kindness from the grassroots people of China i.e. “From China With Love.” As to the senders not explaining the breeds of the seeds, that could simply be the way people in other lands offer such secret brotherly-love gifts -- though, to this very day, gifts from Greece remain suspect, going back some 3,000 years or so.
As to who in their unright American mind might actually plant utterly anonymous seeds from such a foreign land, I can’t imagine, per se -- though, in my case, I’ll blame my rush to buy planting soil on my incontestable curiosity. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t germinate a secret seed … or a slew of them. It hints of Bruce’s “Secret Garden.”
Even though I’ll be going down, in a planting sense, I also realize that the strategic sending of secret seeds borders on psychological warfare. The senders know there’s no keeping a good curiosity down. For that reason, I won’t be frivolous when planting my seeds – and any seeds fearful folks want to pss on to my green-thumbed hand. I’ll do due diligence by planting them in a highly secure area of my garden, which I‘ll surround with concertina wire and signs reading “Possible Seeds of Destruction.” I’ll also keep a big bottle of Agent Orange nearby, in case a huge flower emerges, all “Feed me, Jay” … spoken in Mandarin … “喂我 -- Wèi wǒ.”
The coolest outcome of planting unknown Chinese seeds would be a bud opening up to expose a small message reading, “Help! I’m Being Held in a Chinese Seed Factory!”
SHOUTOUT FOR SAFETY: I’d like to include this segment from my weekly column, in hopes of gaining some moral support.
KIDS GALORE: The Island has seemingly experienced an odd outburst of kids, possibly like never before. I’ve heard it has to do with the lack of kid-level jobs during the pandemic.
Being highly kidified is a wonderful thing when thinking in terms of fostering the Island’s future followers. However, when the kids form into hordes, things can admittedly get a tad testy, especially when the young-guns mount bikes and haphazardly hit the less-than-horde-accommodating roads of LBI. That’s where their wanton wont of survival skills spills forth, biking as if traffic poses no risk. Hey, kids, it does. In fact, traffic is a veritable motorcade of remorseless metal.
It doesn’t take much moving about to see that bicycling has pretty much gone gonzo, both day and night, with the latter presenting in a spooky way -- led by pedalers wearing dark clothing, sporting no lights and, more often than not, riding head-on into night traffic. May their angels watch over them, driver won’t be.
Now is where I push the columnizing envelope a bit by wondering out loud if maybe our fine folks in blue might begin give shoutouts in hopes of rearing in bad biking habits. I’m not suggesting that our officers begin issuing citations. In fact, they won’t even need to get out of their vehicles. They need only, upon seeing the likes of pedalers on the wrong side of the road, get on in-cruiser speakers and offer polite advisories, like, “Please bike with the flow of traffic … Thank-you.”
Simple alerts like that help -- and might save an ugly impact or two. As might nighttime shoutouts, like, “Please equip your bike with lights. Be safe.” I hate to even suggest it, but if something bad were to happen due to bad biking, officers will know they tried to prevent it.
Slightly more rigid shoutouts are sometimes desperately needed during the day, when more advanced bikers ride atop the white line marking biking lanes -- their shoulders literally in the line of traffic. Face it, that is sometimes done with arrogance, considering there is often six feet of open biking lane right to their sides. Yes, I know riding the narrow white line is also done for its smoothness, but that doesn’t make it any safer. An officer’s language in those cases could be a little stricter, i.e. “Please stay within the bike lane … You are at risk riding on the white line.” If such a reminder elicits a middle finger display, it might be high time for a face-to-face.
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When thinking in terms of the first pumped-in beach fills, the Surf City replen of 2006/07 might jump to mind, followed thereafter thus:
However, few folks recall the very first use of major amounts of pumped sand to buttress the eroded Loveladies beach area. That occurred way back in the early 1980s, in preparation of construction of the New South Jetty. Here’s one of the only photos of the effort to pipe one million cubic feet of inlet sand over miles of beach and onto Loveladies at a cost of $4.2.
I clearly recall going to where the sand was being placed in hopes of finding inlet-bottom treasure. Well, if lead sinkers qualify as treasure, I would have been sitting pretty. There were also some Hopkins lures, which hold up amazingly well even after a long time in the water, providing they’re the earliest ones, made of a truly high-quality stainless steel. Later Hopkins lost the quality, becoming easily ravaged when buried in sand over a long period.
I bring up this way-back Loveladies project as a teaser into the possibility that future deepenings of Barnegat Inlet by hopper dredges might be part of a budding project to place the removed sand just off eroded beaches to the south, Loveladies and Harvey Cedars jumping to mind. That inlet sand would not be pumped atop the beach. Instead, it would be strategically placed, in a hydrological sense, so the material would first move shoreward and strengthen sandbars, the true first line of defense against storm waves. From the sandbars, the placed sands would naturally migrate onto the beachline. The process could be repeated again and again, as the inlet shoals up – as it is now.
While such a sand transport plan is only in the what-if stages, I’ll bet the eelgrass farm it’ll happen sooner than later. The same concept could apply to Little Egg Inlet -- as a steady source of sand for Beach Haven and Holgate.
FYI. Here's a replen history:
Year
|
Activity
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2006-2007
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Initial Construction of Surf City Segment
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2009-2010
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Initial Construction of Harvey Cedars Segment
|
2011
|
Emergency Repair (FCCE) for Surf City
|
2012
|
Initial Construction of Brant Beach Segment
|
2013
|
Emergency Repair (Sandy) for Brant Beach, Surf City, Harvey Cedars
|
2015-2016
|
Initial Construction of Rest of Project
|
2018
|
Repair/Nourishment of Surf City, Harvey Cedars & Brant Beach
|
SPONSOR: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP)
Seen near Myers Hole. Info I was sent: "That is the bull gang. That's what they call them. Lol. They move and set the pipes up for replenishment. They station here for when we have jobs in Jersey. Currently we have a job going on in Long Branch and there was work on Fire Island."
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Now, this is more like it!
As high schools prepare for graduation ceremonies across Montana, Gov. Steve Bullock has signed a bill allowing Native American students to wear traditional regalia while marching to get their diplomas.
The bill signed Friday prohibits schools and government agencies from interfering with students who wish to wear eagle feathers, beads and other items of cultural significance.
In the past, some Native American students expressed disappointment and outrage after being told they couldn't wear beaded mortar boards at graduation.
Not all Montana schools banned the practice but it was left to school boards and campus officials to decide whether to allow Native American regalia.
The bill sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jen Gross of Billings and supported by the Legislature's Native American caucus sought to bring uniformity to the rules.
"I'm very proud of where I came from and my name," she said. "As Native people, it's important we have an opportunity to represent ourselves with regalia. For many Native Americans, graduation from high school is huge because of so many challenges in life."
Photo Latonia Andy
Tia Welzenbach, who graduates in May from Sidney High School in Montana, sought approval from her principal before classes last fall if she could bead her cap. The principal turned down her request. So her mother took it up with the superintendent, who then took it up with the school board. In the end, the school board decided to allow the senior to march with a beaded mortar board.
Principal Sue Anderson said it was the first such request she had ever gotten. Welzenbach and her mother were told that students weren't allowed to make changes to graduation attire.
Source
Photo: Tom Bauer
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Below: I have not trouble endorsing this effort, though I draw short of supporting the absurd claims of countless birds dying after colliding with wind turbines. That especially rings ridiculous as more and more data emerges showing domestic cats kill more birds in one night that all the turbines on the planet kill in one year.
Dear Friend,
Earlier this month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Bird-Safe Buildings Act, a major step forward in our effort to protect birds from collisions with glass and other human structures.
This commonsense measure would require federal buildings to incorporate bird-safe design and materials, reducing collisions and potentially saving the lives of millions of birds.
This is the farthest the bill has ever progressed, and now it’s heading to the Senate for consideration. To help ensure this historic bill is signed into law, it’s critical that we raise our voices now.
Tell your Senators to support the Bird-Safe Buildings Act and make ...
Glass collisions claim the lives of up to a billion birds each year in the U.S. — one of the greatest human-caused threats to birds. And the federal government, which oversees nearly 10,000 buildings in the U.S., can play a huge role in reducing these deaths.
The Bird-Safe Buildings Act doesn’t just mandate use of bird-friendly materials. It also would supply federal agencies with a design guide, helping to ensure that bird-safe design techniques and materials — like patterned glass — are effectively applied to all federal buildings purchased, built, or significantly altered.
The Act would also promote smarter lighting practices, decreasing light pollution, saving energy, and averting nighttime collisions. Making the deal even sweeter, the bill is cost neutral and would be carried out with no additional charge to tax-payers.
The federal government can take the lead in protecting birds: Ask your Senators...
Making federal buildings bird-friendly would have a powerful ripple effect, sending a powerful message to the rest of the country that bird collisions can no longer be ignored, and opening the door to a future in which buildings no longer threaten the vitality of America’s birds.
Let’s make it happen: Stand up for birds and ask the Senate to pass the Bird-Safe Buildings Act!
Sincerely,
Jennifer Cipolletti
Director of Conservation Advocacy
American Bird Conservancy
Now THATS a Spanish mackerel! 31"er
This sheep escaped from the farm and spent 6 years in the mountains, during which he grew 60 pounds of wool. Wolves tried to him, but they could not penetrate his wool. Moral of the story: you don’t have to turn hard to survive the wolves, just be really, really, soft and fluffy (maybe a little squishy)
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