Thursday, May 19, 2011

Avon pier

We went for the first time to the Avon pier. Frisco pier is, of course, closed; and Rodanthe is a bit far afield.

We found Avon to be unlike the other fishing piers on Hatteras. To us it represents sensibilities, if not humanity, degraded. This was illustrated in the treatment of bycatch (even of deliberate catch, mangled horribly and then thrown back), the lack of instruction of the young (one approximately 7-year-old boy kicked a fish repeatedly to move it off the pier and back into the water -- no instruction to do differently by any adult), and the disregard of protected species (one young man snagged a sea turtle; instructed to walk it to the shore and remove the hook, he ignored that advice and pulled and tugged until his line came free). Now, most of the cars parked in the great big lot did not have NC plates. It can be speculated that the advice-giver to the turtle-snagger was a local; perhaps the most poorly behaved fisher folk were not.

We did see a bird that we had not seen before. Vic wonders if climate change has altered its territory enough that it now appears a bit further north than it did previously. Can anyone identify it? We didn't bring a bird guide with us.


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