One Fish Two Fish (no red or blue fish)

Today I joined 80 other divers for the New England Aquarium Dive Club’s “Great Annual Fish Count.” After helping volunteers set up the registration and food tables, I joined Vin and Ted at Popplestone Beach in Gloucester. After a rocky entry, we descended in hopes to find fish that we could enter in our count for the REEF database. REEF is an organization of divers who are committed to marine conservation through public outreach and citizen science. It was only a few minutes that passed before we saw a school of pollock! After a long search, we finally found a winter flounder hiding on the bottom. As we were ending our dive I stumbled upon fishing line all tangled at the bottom. Ghost fishing (abandoned traps, hooks, and lines) is a huge issue, and can cause animals to get trapped with no hope of getting out. After retrieving the line, we got out of the water and went to Stage Fort Park to join the other divers for a barbeque. Then we all took a group photo, and waited to see if our ticket would be one of the lucky ones to win a prize in the raffle. Though mine wasn’t pulled for a free charter, I still made out pretty well – I got a shark poster signed by Johnathan Bird and even a scuba tank that was repurposed as a lamp!  The event was a huge success, and I can’t wait to do it again next summer!