CTFishTalk.com: Winter Flounder Habitats in CT - Wilcox Cove 2006-7 IMEP42 - Connecticut Saltwater Reports ( CT Saltwater Reports ) - A Community Built for Connecticut Fisherman.

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[left]Winter Flounder Habitats in Connecticut – Wilcox Cove 2006-2007
A Habitat History Capstone Proposal
Tim Visel, The Sound School, New Haven, CT USA
IMEP Newsletter #42
January 2015[/left]

[left](IMEP Habitat History Newsletters can be found indexed by date on
The Blue Crab.Info™ website: Fishing, Eeling and Oystering thread
And Connecticut FishTalk.com™ (Salt Water Reports)
A Capstone Proposal – Case History Discussions
Timothy C. Visel, Capstone Proposal Series The Sound School
60 South Water Street
New Haven, CT 06519
[/left]

Preface

This newsletter was part of a presentation made at the Thirteen Flatfish Biology Conference December 4 – 5, 2012 held by the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service Northeast Fisheries Center – and paper was titled, “The Association of Estuarine Bivalve Shell Habitats to the Historic Winter Flounder Fyke Net Fishery of Eastern CT.”

This section was part of the presentation which concerned fisher comments about coastal coves and winter flounder habitat conditions from three states, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Connecticut. I will always be grateful to those eastern Long Island New York Baymen who attended my Sea Grant small gear workshops (1978-1985) and provided additional comments about eastern Long Island salt ponds. (Many of which were utilized in other IMEP newsletters) but many winter flounder fishers reported the onset of “sticky mud bottoms” in Connecticut small coves and salt ponds with site specific locations – one of which was Wilcox Cove in Connecticut. It was possible therefore to collect limited local oral history descriptions of winter flounder fisheries here by way of interviews, boat trips and tours (1978-1990). I was not unfortunately able to follow up with visits to New York salt ponds.

Introduction

The habitat change descriptions from the Cape, south shore Rhode Island salt ponds and Connecticut’s coves were all too similar to ignore as the 1960s ended and 1970s began these cove bottoms now turned “sticky.” They often filled with mud termed black mayonnaise but in high heat formed Sapropel. It is the sticky waxy substance of Sapropel from oak leaf digestion that seals pores in sandy bottoms – that in turn blocks ground water exchanges that now appears to be so important for young winter flounder. (An excellent description of winter flounder spawning and habitat conditions is in a 1924 article titled some embryonic and larval stages of the winter flounder by M. Breder Jr. formerly of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries now the Department of Commerce in the appendix).

In 2011 the “sticky” part of this habitat description became more known as the paraffin wax resides of uncompleted leaf digestion from sulfate reducing bacteria. This Sapropel formation process became better understood as of a result accumulating sediments behind large terrestrial dams such as in Arizona*. In high heat and low energy conditions in the marine environment sulfur reducing bacteria also consume these oak leaf deposits – slowly but cannot digest the paraffin (wax) and over time these muds not only became black, sulfide rich and soft but also sticky as wax levels now rise. Oak leaves it seems have one of the highest wax leaf contents – protection against excess moisture loss from leaf tissue during droughts and gives its leaf “shine” from the wax.

As marine soil paraffin levels rise it seals oxygen from organic deposits below creating the “the sticky residue” and thus beginning the deadly Sapropel sulfur cycle – in high heat it (Sapropel) sheds ammonia (toxic to adult fish) and purges sulfide extremely toxic to fish eggs and shellfish larval stages. In high heat this material is deadly to winter flounder.

That is why so many winter flounder fishers reported basically the same habitat reversals as Sapropel formed and hard sandy bottoms turned mucky and sticky in the late 1970s and 1980s. Some reported that these habitat reversals had happened before and in the Niantic Bay eastern CT areas local histories persisted that the best winter flounder fishing comes after storms “that clears all this material out.” The energy of storms acted to remove these toxic sulfur/wax deposits, reopen pore water circulation on the bottoms that winter flounder needed in these shallow spawning and hatching areas. It also explains why after so many New England dredging projects “life” in general “returned” to the dredged areas after habitats stabilized and frequently winter flounder fishing improves. The dredging projects can also remove this deadly habitat type – Sapropel but strong storms do it also – naturally in cycles. The event (removal) resuspends Sapropel which in the presence of oxygen produces sulfuric acid and sulfides and the infamous “black water deaths” of the past century. After the toxic reversal declines of fish and shellfish reappear they often “return.” [Wax deposits from incomplete organic matter digestion (leaf material) was linked to ruined drip irrigation systems. See reports of the Central Arizona Project (CAP) project date (2013 Annual Water Quality Report) and Lake Pleasant reviews of 12/4/96.]

Deep Sapropel deposits are now thought to contain leaf “tannin” signatures and with further review we may be able to identify organic matter source. Sapropel deposits tend to build during climate periods of high heat and low energy. They also can develop behind restricted circulations and above reservoir dams.

Coastal coves in Connecticut have in fact had several habitat reversals as detailed in Wesleyan core studies of the early 1990s. All of the coves surveyed showed distinct bivalve shell and organic layers from core descriptions. Those 1992-94 core studies were released in 2011.

Many fishers have themselves experienced these sticky organic deposits while poling across coves and salt ponds hitting at times pockets of a sulfur smelling sticky blue black mud which seems to want to hold the oar or crab net pole forever. The sticky is from the wax in Sapropel as the oar or pole is retrieved – sometimes with great difficulty of the smell of sulfur also occurs. Sealed by the wax organic matter is reduced not in the presence of oxygen but now sulfur as this organic layer can deepen and becomes more isolated from oxygen. Colder water and ice may have had a habitat sustaining role, as the most productive winter flounder fisheries occur in colder periods. Cold water contains more oxygen and helps keep sulfur reducing bacteria at lower levels and slows Sapropel formation.

One area in eastern CT in which flounder fishers had the most detailed habitat histories where eastern CT, particularly in Quiambaug, Wilcox and Wequetequock Coves.

Jeff Wilcox deserves special thanks here as a long time supporter of habitat research first as a “cove watcher” as winter flounder fishers watched as popular winter flounder areas “died” in the 1980s and then habitat observer including Wilcox Cove in eastern, CT in 2005. A section on Wilcox Cove is included from a 2006-2007 tour of Wilcox Cove.

I respond to all emails at tim.visel@new-haven.k12.ct.us

Capstone Proposals -

Students interested in a habitat history Capstone Project – please see Tim Visel in the aquaculture Office. Most newspapers are being scanned and available online helping to investigate fyke and fish trap fisheries in eastern CT. Between 1860 and 1890 many of Connecticut’s coastal communities relied upon menhaden trap net fisheries were especially longer eastern CT which supported many “fish works” that would render the oil from menhaden and gave rise to its local name of “bunker” from ship board fish oil tanks. Great catches were after reported in the local news media – for the economic prosperity they provided then to those communities. With the Great Heat of the 1890s these inshore habitats failed for winter flounder and menhaden and sulfide production is now linked to the 1898 Southern New England fish and lobster kills then termed black water deaths. Newspaper accounts provide important source material for descriptions of the 1898 lobster die off as well. Some of the turn of the century fish kills were accompanied by strong sulfide smells that stained houses near them. That was reported by New York baymen in the 1970s. As the heat continued to build at the turn of the century shallow areas were prone to sulfide fish and shellfish larval toxic events.

Coastal Coves show habitat reversals -

One study that commenced in 1992 but results completed in 2001 and made available as complete studies in 2011 details habitat core histories in the Poquonock River in Groton, CT. Dr. Peter Paddon of Wesleyan University under contract #CWF-266-R-1994 did the study in response to bay scallopers and winter flounder fisheries’ concerns over observed habitat reversals- hard to soft bottoms in the 1980s. That was confirmed by the second Paddon study CWF-310-R-1994. I don’t think the age of estuarine shell found in core layers however is accurate. In surveys of the Hammonasset River in 1979, Pleasant Bay Cape Cod in 1982 and the Pattagansett River in 1987, I surveyed buried shellfish populations (one to two meters) that came up with old Coke™ bottles, coal from railroad refuse and pieces of shoe/footwear all within a meter of the “present” bottom. I doubt the age estimates on the earliest Poquonock River, Groton, CT shell layers as 3,400 years as this area had expensive oyster beds in the 1880s (JW Collins 1887) and had 21 winter flounder fyke nets set in 1887, (High Smith 1887). I also doubt that such a winter flounder fyke net fishery would have been productive over areas that in 1983 held several feet of organic compost today called “black mayonnaise” (Visel, Elmer, Edward, Survey Poquonnock River 1985) which is more properly termed Sapropel.

It appears from these critical cove surveys that habitat types reverse over time in response to climate and energy cycles. A reduction of energy may resemble larger natural cycles and restricted tidal flow is one way to look at energy reduction impacts to winter flounder habitats.

In the eastern CT railroad causeways may have mimicked in a way the natural closing and opening of barrier beach inlets, and coastal salt ponds. Closing inlets had speeded up habitat changes largely to now soft organic composting ones. Once black mayonnaise deposits rotted in high heat Sapropel was formed (1987 NOAA Estuary of the month series) and noticed by fishers and reported by Donald Rhoads of Yale University). It was Dr. Rhoads who mentioned sulfide purging in a greater context of habitat change in regards to Sapropel expansion (1986).

The Deadly Impact of the Sulfur/Sapropel Cycle

In times of prolonged heat and less energy inlets and salt pond tidal exchanges lessen, inlets tend to heal and tidal flushing lessens. Near coastal environments changed as they become compositing and acidic, eventually anoxic. Shellfish populations died out and habitat conditions for winter flounder soon also declined. These negative impacts can be associated to the reducing of organic matter – (most from streets) deprived of oxygen, ammonia generation and sulfide purging. Periods of increased tidal/storm energy and colder periods inlets tend to widen or break tidal exchange increases and marine soils are washed of this acidic sulfur rich terrestrial debris. Increased tidal flow also increases available oxygen. Shellfish sets improve mostly Mya and Mercenaria clam species, winter flounder habitat quality then improves – feeding upon newly set clams and a more alkaline pH marine soil prevails. Recent studies now point to groundwater exchanges as a positive habitat condition for flounder eggs. Muds with sulfides are toxic to flounder eggs and can create a “sulfide block” to several fish species.

Many different names exist for this sulfur rich mud – The Army Corps of Engineers terms it sulfate acidic soil which more aptly describes biological impacts more than “bottoms or sediment”. It does not however describe the huge biological implications of this material to supporting Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) or the impacts of even minute traces of sulfide to larval fish and shellfish.

The record of such climate change driven habitat reversals are found in shell layers of estuarine cores. A habitat history is reflected years later in a fishery history, which we call landing statistics that follow habitat parameters that may favor a species and for winter flounder provide a preferred habitat matrix. How does this process happen and how it relates to winter flounder catches is described below.

Climate and Habitat Quality

The 1880-1920 period is one in our New England climate history that saw summers become increasing hot and the number of strong coastal storms noticeably decline from the 1870s. Waters became warmer and habitats (shellfish) changed – this was the end of the eastern CT fyke net fishery for winter flounder. To the fishers at the time the storms just were not as strong nor as frequent – waters were now warmer and winters tended to be mild. Storms followed a more western storm track drawing off warm gulf stream waters and producing more rain than snow in New England. This was known as the Hudson Valley Storm track. In 1931 the habitats started to reverse, colder winters now prevailed and storm intensity grew from the 1940s into the 1950s. This was a time of the powerful Nor’easters, a more easterly storm track – producing more snow and colder winters. A colder more storm filled period would cleanse organic matter from coves a sandy – “cultivated” marine soil soon held more clams – winter flounder fishing improved and fyke nets had a “brief return.”

Rhode Island also saw a return of this gear type following the 1951-1965 period during the 1970s -1980s. The ecology of the Rhode Island salt ponds had changed, bottoms were firmer shellfish containing and colder temperatures assisted winter flounder year class recruitment. Evidence exists that the strong year classes of the 1950s and 1960s provided the adult winter flounder for the fishers of the 1970s and early 1980s (1981-82).

By the late 1980s significant habitat changes were occurring in the Rhode Island Salt Ponds. (Thad Gruska, personal communications). Small otter trawling in the salt ponds was becoming more and more difficult due to the presence of thickening algal mats which makes such hand hauled trawling nearly impossible. The amount of firm bottom was declining and algae growth increasing, fyke nets in Ninigret Pond were now set on the remaining firm bottom (Crawford, 1990).

Soft organic rich deposits were found to be poor winter flounder egg setting sites gravel, sand and a sand shell mix swept by currents was found to be the best. These habitat conditions firm, shelly and subject to moderate currents were also the same areas winter flounder sought out to spawn. (See appendix for Description of Massachusetts Spawning Habitats). Slightly negative and sticky egg masses do better in such environments. Soft silt covered areas, also the ones most susceptible to oxygen depletion and sulfide purging have been found to be poor areas for eggs, burial, oxygen and such marine soils often have high sulfur levels. They also tend to be acidic. Sulfide is highly toxic to winter flounder eggs.

Areas that contained large grain sandy gravel and small stones have been areas associated with favorable egg development and contain perhaps the best highly oxygenated ground water. The presence of specialized skin cells near the caudal tail fin region are thought to be significant to juvenile fish but at high tide tidal flows could not saturate such soils with “closed” pore capillaries (now filled with Sapropel wax residues) and on the ebb tide release the flow, providing a safety mechanism for small founder also bathing attached eggs in oxygen rich pore water.

(Crawford 1990), in studies of Point Judith Pond found that gravel and cobble bottom to be prime winter flounder spawning habitat. Winter flounder perhaps could sense this cooler oxygen rich water during tidal changes signaling a spawning sequence. Silt and deep organic mud substrates have been found to be poor egg mass settlement areas. (Joe Pereira, NMFS). An overall test of this theory is the behavior of winter flounder themselves when trapped in a low oxygen environment. They tend not to flee immediately but head to sandy and gravel areas; first, ones that may contain escaping oxygen rich pore water providing a critical life support respiration tail skin patch pathway. The same pore water could be critical to maintaining favorable pH after navigation dredging assisting shellfish sets. Fishers often report winter flounder returning to dredged areas. As Sapropel is removed either by storms or by coastal navigation projects – winter flounder habitats generally improve.

Eggs in these “now cleaned” areas would be bathed in oxygen rich flow water. Eggs over fine grain silt or sticky mud which tend to seal these pore water sources suffer much lower survival or egg viability rates. Salt ponds and river mouths frequently contain glacial gravel and large grain sand areas. Reports from fisheries in the 1970s and 1980s often described changing bottom conditions, areas that were once sandy or firm were becoming softer and sediment filled. Such Sapropel deposits act to seal off water circulation in estuarine soils, especially gravels. At high tide, wax containing organics would seal off these groundwater exchanges. We have several examples of Sapropel impacts from Aquaculture and the recreational aquarium industry. Early studies of salmon also maintained the negative impact of organic matter blocking gravel pore circulation. Some of the first hatchery methods utilized such ground water “upwelling” to mimic natural stream bed conditions.

The first aquaculture trout and salmon incubators were in part based upon natural gravel bar stream conditions. Here salmon would seek these areas in which to lay eggs, the reason is that gravel and pebbled areas contained more oxygen for the eggs. Commercial hatchery units soon duplicated these natural gravel “upwellers,” see description of Vibert Box Richard Vibert 1950. It may seem plausible that winter flounder would seek or sense such areas in which to deposit eggs areas which they could sense high quality ground water upwelling – again to be cleaned after storms.

In other words coastal navigational dredging may act to restore or prolong winter flounder habitat quality simply by removing Sapropel and freeing ground water circulation - Fishers often notice that winter flounder in time return to such “cleaned” bottoms – either after storms or navigational dredging projects.

One may need to look at natural conditions such as storms to periodically recharge or scour (cut) new sandy or gravel bottoms, areas that contain reverse hydraulic or upwelling (some may refer to this impact as groundwater springs but is more generalized) influenced by tides could over time become sealed or filled. Pores become filled with organics Sapropel and this localized gravel upwelling at low tide may cease. That may explain some of the long term habitat shifts in these coves, the presence of tidal restrictions, altered energy pathways, and in such changed the habitat quality for winter flounder in these areas.

It may also help to explain why after New England dredging projects winter flounder often return and occasionally in large numbers. Dredging removes the acidic sulfate soil (Sapropel) and reopens gravel and sandy areas to tidal pulses of groundwater saline cooler and oxygen rich – much better winter flounder egg conditions then to those found over Sapropel (sulfide purging). We certainly need more monitoring of navigational dredging projects that remove Sapropel to assess these changes.

<Diagrams will be found on our website <<www.soundschool.com>> in the near future.>

Pre Dredging

<Diagrams will be found on our website <<www.soundschool.com>> in the near future.>

The dredging activity may unseal potential new spawning habitat or restore a previous one, a back flush to a commercial sand filter so to speak, similar to a commercial pool bead filter. Here in pool and aquaculture applications the filters begin to fail as all pore water spaces fill with organic material especially in systems with non organic capacities*. As the filter begins to fail pressure builds as pores spaces fill, as the amount of resistance builds flow rates decline until the filter fails to work at all and resists additional hydraulic pressure, only back washing the filter media or replacing the media is the only way to restore water flows. [It could be said that every homeowner with the old type aquarium filters have seen or smelled “sulfate reduction.” The filter units would fill with a black substance that often had a match stick sulfide odor, if unchanged or filtering capacities in high heat these aquariums would form a black paste with life ending outcomes for any aquarium contents.] If a filter is turned off Sapropel can quickly form with deadly hydrogen sulfide formation – source of the naturally occurring black water deaths of high organics low oxygen conditions. The presence of gravel and coarse sand or “new sand” could be significant habitat for pre-spawned adults, and signify not only attempts to return to a particularly salt pond or cove but to a particular area in that cove. Some dredging projects and in particular a 1988 dredging project in Alewife Cove areas of glacial gravel were uncovered (personal observation). Winter flounder returned in large numbers to these cleaned “areas”. Only to leave as leaf accumulations again built up – after 1998. Pore water exchanges could be impacted by organic deposits restricting soil circulation and creating toxic chemical changes. In high heat and reduced tidal exchange soils frequently became acidic and perhaps a lower quality for winter flounders. A dredging project removes accumulated deposits also function as a cleaning “filter back wash” restoring groundwater up flow. Some indicators that this hydraulic flow exists by previous temperature differences in those areas found to be organic filled.

The presence of organics such as seaweed and dense algal mats especially dense eelgrass meadows in high heat would also act to “clog this natural filter” as would happen to gravel bars in streams. Here floods (energy pathways) can destroy or alter trout spawning beds (gravel) but uncover or create new ones. The same may be true in the marine environments as well as land therefore we shouldn’t over look the positive habitat renewal impacts of coastal energy. Dredging and storms may have some mechanical impact as back washing a filter system cleaning/clearing a soft silt or muck layer from cobbles/sand cove bottoms. Dredging operations could cut into existing gravel sand deposits exposing ground water / upwelling flow. This habitat reversal should be the subject of monitoring post dredging research with appropriate survey methods.

Tidal fluctuations with ground waters -

Salt marshes with tidal creeks and salt ponds offer an interesting study opportunity to measure the presence of oxygen rich ground water. Hydraulically at low tide the creek represents a weakness in the ground water tables, or ground water springs. I have seen such springs providing flow water in the Hammonasset River upper reaches at low tide ground water can be seen flowing into the stream bed. A high profile beach at low tide can be the source of such micro flows along the beach front, similar to a filter back washing – often appearing as small rivulets. As the tide recedes pore water is released to the beach surface.

Organic matter may act to seal such ground water pulses further limiting critical young of the year winter flounder habitats in coastal coves. It may also explain whey some of the salt ponds on Cape Cod still had life around the edges between the tide lines.

At high tide and hydraulic pulse could force salt water into the ground water and cooler be an oxygen source on ebb tides. In high temperatures small flounder may seek out these areas for life support as shown in illustration #2. And in a study of Tom’s Creek in Madison CT tidal ground water was found to 7 to 9 degrees cooler than ambient surface water. See “Where Have All the Winter Flounder Gone?” presented at the 12th Flatfish Biology Conference, December 1 & 2, 2010, Timothy C. Visel, pages 48 to 50. Reverse pore water flows can frequently be seen along New England sandy beaches at lower tides.

Sapropel and sticky residues in sandy soils are now through to be one of the factors that degrade winter flounder habitats. Less storms would favor Sapropel build up so would higher temperatures as sulfur reducing bacteria would reduce organic matter with less dissolved oxygen. In the final analysis the closing of commercial fishing activities hastened habitat failures. The act of trawling or hand dredging was the equivalent of leaf blowers today. Many Cape Cod salt ponds once closed to small trawls leafed over and turned “sour” (Phil Schwin, personal communication T. Visel 1982). In almost every instance of energy reduction – mechanical or natural winter flounder habitats now “failed” faster.

The rise of and fall of Connecticut’s winter flounder fyke net fishery could be directly tied to the habitat quality in Connecticut’s coves. An environmental history of habitat types can be found in coastal core studies providing important clues to the habitat history of winter flounder in Connecticut.

<Diagrams will be found on our website <<www.soundschool.com>> in the near future.

[center]Appendix to Fyke Net Paper
A Tour of Wilcox Cove March 17, 2006
Tim Visel and Jeff Wilcox
Stonington, Connecticut
A Look at Historic Fish Traps During the Great Heat 1880-1920[/center]

A March 2006 visit to original Wilcox Marine supply store-Wilcox Road, Stonington, Ct. Wilcox Point/Cove. The Wilcox family has been in the fishing business since 1879. (Jeff Wilcox included habitat history comments to the hauling and unloading of fish traps in the area.) Jeff Wilcox provided me some of the family fishery history before we toured Wilcox Cove.
George W. Wilcox founded the fishing business in 1879. Several family members were involved in a reduction fish meal and fertilizer plant (Menhaden) and fish trapping in the Stonington area. Alfred Rogers Wilcox purchased the fishing gear business in 1947 (Jeff operates it today) from his grandfather George W. Wilcox. Alfred Wilcox operated the business from 1947 to 1994.
Wilcox Marine Supply was to provide much of Stonington fishing fleet fish trap gear, lobster then trawl net gear. Fish trapping had declined by 1947 the year his father purchased the business.
He had heard about the fyke and fish trapping business and had pictures of the fish traps (fykes) unloading at Wilcox Cove. By the 1960s the fyke net fishery here was gone, although oral/family history claims it reached its peak around the turn of the century in Wilcox and the area coves.
In the early 1980s, we would discuss cove and embayment conditions- many times following my research into the history of inshore fisheries. Many of these discussions included the impact of the railroad and road causeways. This included the cycle impact of coastal energy natural forces that would at times “reopen” the cove. Wilcox Cove in the 1980s had become soft and muck filled. Then on December 16, 2005 after a powerful Northeastern the barrier beach broke in two places into Wilcox Cove. A roar of water now filled the cove, and barrier breaks are a dramatic reminder of how habitats can change (succeed or reverse) in the coastal zone. After decades of relatively quiet Wilcox Cove was open again, 2008-2011 would become the beginning of the transition between the Second Great Heat to an energy storm filled period. This is the email communication I received the afternoon of December 17, 2005:

“Tim: it finally happened the beach was breached yesterday in dramatic fashion. Two new sluice ways 10’-12’ in width and the water is moving! Mother Nature is awesome. I never expected to wash out all at once but it did. Have pictures but don’t know how to attach them. Jeff Wilcox”
Jeff Wilcox recounted that Wilcox Cove recently reopened in late 2005 after almost completely sealing barrier beach inlet. The last time we walked the Cove together was in 1986. From a very strong Nor'easter as part of the eastern CT railroad causeway winter flounder habitat investigation. The Wilcox family railroad right of way is now closed-although Jeff's father refused compensation and Jeff’s father Alfred still owns the land under the tracks as per the original agreement with the "railroad" a century ago.

According to Jeff Wilcox this was a case precedent as all other "railroad takings" had been accompanied by a cash payment. George W. Wilcox refused payment and still owns the land under the tracks while acknowledging his rights to cross the tracks has now ended.] At that time a large amount of water exchanged with the tides and kept an ebb channel clear. The watershed had long since changed and the barrier beach has retreated landward toward the railroad tracks. As we crossed the tracks and walked south along the old right of way, Jeff pointed to a group of Cedar trees. That is where they would unload the fish traps – two to the east one in front of Wilcox Cove and one towards Latimer Point. These fish traps were for "food fish" and some lobster bait. The menhaden fish traps were off Latimer Point with the "fish works" where the fish (Menhaden) were boiled for oil. Jeff remembers they used a lot of coal. The boilers were in constant use and the steam did contain a strong smell. [What was unusual at the time, Jeff recounts was his grandfather would walk up to see people sitting or standing on his porch, strangers but they would seek out the strong smell salt air for medical purposes, this occurred during the 1895 to 1910 period.] The area that used to be deep is now a piece of salt marsh; the pier is 30 feet away from the water's edge. The Menhaden fishmeal factory closed in 1935 and the company that serviced that trap boats and nets was relocated on the Mystic River, across from the Margaritaville Restaurant today. That facility, Larimer Point Fish Works was destroyed by fire and the 1938 hurricane destroyed the facility on the Mystic River. Jeff took a metal detector to the fire site and found bronze boilerplates that were on the "cookers". These cookers would steam “cook” the fish separating valuable oil, and key a fish cake that was turned into an excellent fertilizer. The fish traps at Wilcox Cove were primarily used as food shipped by rail or to New York City and fyke net fishing occurred in the cove itself.

However, Wilcox Cove had been much deeper and 30 years ago stakes could still be seen from the boat docks in front of Wilcox beach (a classic barrier beach system). These stakes held the traps boats and unload on the inside cove that had carrier transportation access. As we approached the beach, Jeff mentioned that the meadow used to be harvested for salt hay and was occasionally burned to provide ash and further promote salt hay growth. The water's edge had migrated about 50 feet landward in 60 years. The Cove opening had breached after a strong SE gale at high tide with a full moon, the classic combination recording in coastal records - a "Nor'easter" at high tide. It is the "back wash" post flooding that opens the Cove and most of the ebb tide channels in Connecticut. It is these storm events that would disturbed wash way deep Sapropel deposits its accumulated during high heat and “energy” poor times. In the areas we could observe the bottom was sandy the mud was now “gone.”
What has occurred during the last century is that so much of the upland watershed has been altered, either by drainage or diversion so that the tides have been blocked or lessened. Road and Railway causeways in Eastern Connecticut can contribute to the rapid sealing of coves for two reasons,

1. A delay in tidal time the speed of flooding and ebbing tides. Narrow causeways meter the flow in and out so the strong ebb tide that once scoured channels (on the ebb) free twice a day is substantially less. Today many coves have a weak flow in some areas, in severe cases a trickle to what was the previous tidal flow rate. This reduces the periodic or cyclic removal of leaf deposits. (Many now from streets and storm water from them).

2. Reduced tidal action and re-suspension of silt and organic material. This is quite evident in coves that had once open access to Long Island Sound. After railway/road causeway access is greatly reduced some instances by 90% creating a dam that prevents tide / and wave action. Soft sediments accumulate behind the causeway lessening cove depth. In some Connecticut coves this organic matter has already accumulated several feet. (An excellent example of this is the Pattagansett River system in East Lyme here you can still see the older trestle railroad causeway next to a filled earthen causeway).

Jeff recalled that in the 1950s and 1960s he and his brother Peter would go winter flounder fishing in the cove. It was under and deeper and during the summer later they even water skied in the cove. But later the cove bottoms would turn softer, the practice of ice spearing for flounder ended (winters it seemed had less and less ice – see ice fishing in appendix). Fishermen used to set fykes here, Moses H. Wilcox, a relative had several such fykes (Note fish traps and fykes are mentioned as a single gear type- the offshore traps were also referred to as pounds while fykes are also mentioned as “weirs”). People didn't fish in the cove for flounder anymore- the bottom had changed and the cove had filled in. [The 1950s and 1960s saw colder winter temperatures and thick ice frequently covered them. A spring Nor'easter could force water underneath the ice and on ebb tides as the tide dropped forced organic matter from the coves as a retired Cape Cod shell fishermen once described the process as pressing against a toothpaste tube and then taking the cap off. The ice itself would help keep the coves free of organic debris, especially fallen leaves. In times of no ice, this hydraulic freezing or cleaning process did not occur, leaves collected and rotted turning into a sulfide rich loose gelatin like material called black mayonnaise after its greasy jelly like consistency. Today that material is more properly termed Sapropel – although the Army Corps of Engineers has termed it sulfate acidic soil.]

In the 1950s and 1960s tremendous coastal energy (mostly hurricanes) had kept the cove’s mouth wide and deep- and cold water assisted bacterial reduction of organic matter. Bottoms were firm mud/sand and often contained clams and bay scallops such as Wilcox Cove. Jeff now described opposite habitat conditions, the cove bottoms were soft and any remaining shellfish populations are now most likely buried. The bottom of the cove today resembled little of the cove’s features four decades ago.

As for the Wilcox fish reduction business, a listing of the pound/weir locations can be found in the 1901-1908 Fourth Biennial Report of the CT Fisheries & Game Commission (see attachment #1).
It appeared during the March tour Wilcox Cove was impaired by a delay in tidal time. The railroad and to a lesser extent Route 1 causeway had reduced ebb tidal flow, combined with upland change in watershed/natural drainage the cove didn't have the ebb velocity to keep the cove mouth stable (or remove material carried into the cove during floods tides).

In the natural environment what could take decades (before the next northeaster at high tide) could be closed in a few years and sometimes as little as a few months. From what the Colonial records recount is a combination of three factors, a northeast or southeast wind, waves and heavy rain. At high tide the cove mouth over washes, and freshwater from streams combines to recut the cove as the tide falls. Without a large ebb flow the barrier beach can migrate up the cove, this was the case in the Wilcox Cove and also in Alewife Cove on the New London/Waterford border. In Alewife Cove much of the ebb channel water flow was diverted to another stream to the west. Without the ebb flow low tide cutting action, sand waves pushed from the incoming tide was stronger than the ebb. With each incoming tide sand and silt is carried in to the cove but is not totally removed at ebb. As the cove fills it allows less water in so this action alone can fill a cove requiring dredging to remove the accumulation, Alewife Cove had such dredging to remove built up sand three decades ago.
The opening at Wilcox Cove was significant, over 150 feet wide (March 2006) and could remain open for quite some time. The overall outlook is that without a good ebb surge out, the channel will eventually fill and the cove mouth lessens. This can cause an accumulation of organics, such as sticks, leaves, and decayed marsh grasses to fill areas leaving a soft low pH gelatin or mayonnaise like substance. This happens behind causeways when wave action has been eliminated. At first the changes in the bottom go unnoticed, to the untrained observer the tide still rises and falls but the causeways have eliminated that flood tide/wave action that was so vital to keeping the cove bottom clean.

In areas that had hard sand or gravel bottoms begin to "soften". In less than a decade a soft black layer (Sapropel) can cover once productive clam and oyster beds. Within a century this material can accumulate 5 to 15 feet in depth. The productive clam and oyster beds (and for many accounts the fishing) becomes a distant memory.

Inshore small boat fishermen were ones who first noticed in eastern Connecticut. Areas that once had a hard bottom now have soft muck. It has been my experience that nutrient enhancement and high heat can significantly speed up this process. In the end, the nutrient levels overwhelm available oxygen on warm summer nights creating the conditions that produce sulfide gases -- that characteristic "rotten egg" smell. Fishermen soon recognized the changes in the bottom sediments and the fish habitats they used to provide. There is a large amount of great literature about the declines in shell and finfish production from Connecticut Coastal coves, especially in Central and Eastern Connecticut at the turn of the century – many of our historical fisheries records are kept by the Connecticut DEP at its Old Lyme Division Headquarters.

The future of Wilcox Cove is directly linked to the ability of the cove to clear the channel at ebb tide. Sea level rise will insure over washes especially when high tide/northeast storms occur. What is uncertain is the increased tidal surge and waves will be blocked by the railway causeway until at some point the causeway itself will be subject to wave action. Hardened shorelines have a way of speeding up geologic time and Wilcox Cove forms a natural funnel. When a tremendous storm surge occurs its configuration favors concentrating and directing the surge into the cove and any obstacle and in this case the causeway itself. With a greatly reduced cove depth and cove width the storm surge's energy is directed inland and the buffer between the headland (and in the case the railroad bed) is reduced. This type of storm occurs every 70 to 75 years in the area, last being in 1938. Next year it is going to be 70 years and something of this magnitude can be expected. If this storm hits at high tide the surge could threaten the railroad causeway itself. The Route 1 causeway could have blocked or disrupted the natural drainage also reducing ebb flow. Aerial over flight photographs and historic charts should be consulted for changes in recent cove configurations. They may lend to predict the future fisheries/fish habitat Wilcox Cove may have in the future.

Notes and comments provided to Jeff Wilcox July 2006.
Thank you for you and your family's support of my fishing and Vocational Educational programs these past 40 years.
Tim Visel
2006
Attachment (1) Narration of Jeff Wilcox (April 2007) Fyke & Trap fisherman, Moses Wilcox
Moses Wilcox lived to be 98 years old. Born around 1880, he retired in 1940 at about 60 years of age, when the fish meal plant closed in Mystic.
His winter flounder speared, fished with eel spears and a turtle hook then; turtle hook is thrown down, hearing the knock turn it 90° and pull up – would hook the turtle underneath and pulled out of the mud (Wilcox Cove).

The places were described as deep holes of flounder holes for instance, I heard this also described for the Niantic Bay region. Deeper holes in the muddy bottom would hold flounder, eels and in some cases turtles mostly terrapins. These pockets were also at times contained dense eelgrass edges.
He fished and hunted in the area of Wilcox Cove with Fyke nets. He hunted ducks and had a small hunting skiff that he found floating off Stonington – a planked cedar on oak skiff. Jeff thought it would be a skiff that belonged to some of the sailing yacht; no one claimed it so it became Moses, who used it in the cove and duck hunting. One day he accidentally shot the stem off the skiff while duck hunting and got so mad he threw the shotgun overboard. He bought the skiff in and had the stem replaced.
Jeff still had the skiff in the basement under the old section of the former net loft (circa 1890). He showed us the skiff copper rivets with fine tapered oak frame with the bottom planks almost gone, but the curved cedar sides in good condition and rivets noticeable. Walter Ansell, a local boat builder was quoted to restoration at about $4,000. It was a beautiful shaped skiff, something that would have been owned by a New York Yacht Club member in the 1890s Jeff felt.
We then talked about the fishing industry and I told Willard, my son when I went into Wilcox at 14 you had to wait in line at the old cash register—the fishing industry in the local area was busy then – that was in 1968.
Jeff and I talked about the Sound School V-Notch lobster program and the absence of young people going into commercial fishing- marine programs of limited licensing. Jeff was concerned that a next generation of fishers would never happen and that soon most of our seafood would come from overseas, not from here. We then talked about cycles and patterns of fish and shellfish abundance certainly not the best time for lobsters or winter flounder for that matter.

Attachment (2) [left]Wilcox Cove History – Moses Wilcox Fyke Net Fishery
(for the 2012 NOAA Presentation)
1901 – 1902 Fourth Biennial Report of The State of CT Fish & Game Commission
Locations of the Wilcox Family Trap & Weir Sites (permits) 1901-1902
State of CT Fish and Game
Jesse H. Wilcox, Mystic[/left]

Pound/Weir Locations
No 10 – Off Cedar Point
No 11 – Off Calf Point or Noyes Rock
No 155 – extension of Pound #11
Pound no 155 not fished in 1902
Denison E. & George W. Wilcox Mystic (Jeff’s grandfather page 3)
No 13 – off Lydia Point
No 14 - Outside of Pound No 13
No 76 – Southwest Point of Mason’s Island
No 77 –
No 78 –
No 132 – Off Searcher’s Rock

Moses H. Wilcox, Mystic Page 33
No 53 – South Woodbridge Island
No 60 – East Lydia Island
No 63 - Cormorant Rock
No 160 – East of White Rock

Note: Because of the mobility of fykes, specific sites were not often registered, only general areas, a permit to an area could enable multiple fykes to be set. Pounds and weirs had specific locations must after behind a reef or island for storm protection.

[center]Department of Commerce
_________________

Bulletin
of the
United States
Bureau of Fisheries

VOL. XXXVIII
1921-1922
_________________

Henry O’ Malley
Commissioner

[/center]

[center]
Washington
Government Printing Office
1924

SOME EMBRYONIC AND LARVAL STAGES OF THE WINTER FLOUNDER

By C.M. Breeder Jr.[/center]
Formerly Fishery Expert, U.S. Bureau of Fisheries

The height of the spawning season of the winter flounder, Pseudopleuronecles americanus (Walb.), in the vicinity of Woods Hole, Mass., is reached at what is usually the coldest time of the year, most frequently during February. The material on which this paper is based was acquired during the period extending from January 28 to February 23, 1921, the spawn being gathered from Bowen’s pond, Poket, and Waquoit. These are small arms of the sea superficially quite lacustrine in appearance and of rather low salinity, due to a considerable influx of fresh water. The fish were taken in small fyke nets set at a depth of about 8 feet through breaks in the ice. The temperatures and salinities of these spawning grounds during the period of observation, which probably give a fair indication of the average variation, were as follows:

Locality.................Temperature F°................Specific gravity at 60° F
Bowen’s pond…………33-37……………………………………1.011-1.020…………………….
Poket………………………32-37……………………………………1.010-1.011…………………….
Waquoit…………….……35…………………………………………1.016-1.022…………….......

Possibly the temperatures dropped a little lower at times when no records were taken.
On February 23 the entire catch of one fyke net (85 specimens) was examined in detail and 24 percent was found to be ripe, 37 percent spent, 33 percent partly spent, and 6 percent immature. These data would seem to indicate that the season was well under way and about to wane, which was substantiated by statements of the men and subsequent observations. A few examples of the younger fish were always found along with the mature fish, apparently following them to the spawning grounds, although sexually immature and unable to partake of the activity.

In the latitude of New York this species is angled for in the fall and sometimes as late as the middle of December. From then on it usually ceases to take the hook until it is next taken in late February, the anglers’ belief being that the flounders lie dormant in the mud during the coldest weather. Along the New England coast the fall season closes earlier and the fishes do not reappear to the anglers much before the middle of March or later. Correlating this with the preceding study of the stomach contents it is evident that these fish feed little, if at all, during the period of sexual activity.

[left]Noank Hatchery Report for 1935[/left]

The following is a brief summary of the hatching and release of lobsters, smelt and flounder fry from the State Hatchery at Noank in 1935, furnished through the courtesy of the State Board of Fisheries and Game:

Smelt
Brood fish were secured from the traps of Capt. Fred Burdick of Avondale, R.I.; 1,318 fish were taken and transferred to the field station at Wequetequock, and after spawning, 1,152 were returned to Capt. Burdick – a loss of only 156 fish. From the eggs produced- a loss of only 1156 fish. From the eggs produced by these fish a total of 25,384,000 fry were hatched and released in Connecticut waters – a substantial number being released in the Pawcatuck River.

Flounders
The hatchery secured, principally from Capt. Burdick’s traps, 779 brood fish which were placed in the spawning troughs. The flounder draggers brought a very few fish to the hatchery in 1935, as some of the boats co-operating with the hatchery in previous years were not fishing. All flounders, when through spawning, were returned to the water again. The Fish and Game Department paid at the rate of 5 cents per pound for the brood stock. From the 779 brood fish, a total of 103,315,380 flounder fry were liberated in Connecticut waters.

Lobsters
Mature egg-bearing lobsters are purchased from the fishermen at the prevailing market price. A total of 2,767 were secured in 1935. After hatching off the young lobsters, the mother lobsters are returned and released in the same sections of the coast as where taken. The majority of egg-bearing lobsters in 1935 were caught and furnished to the hatchery by fishermen west of the Connecticut River; 492,712 fourth stage lobsters were reared and released in Connecticut waters in 1935, an increase of nearly 150,000 over the year 1934.

(Reprinted, November 17, 2010)

[center]
PRESS
RELEASE[/center]
[center]
Department of Environmental Protection, Hartford, Connecticut 06106
For further information:

Eric M. Smith, 443-0166 (Waterford) November 17, 1986

NIANTIC RIVER WINTER FLOUNDER FISHERY CLOSED[/center]

Hartford – Robert Jones, Director of the Bureau of Fisheries, Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), today announced that the Niantic River winter flounder fishery will be closed form December 1 through March 31 in the area upstream from the Route 156 highway bridge between Waterford and East Lyme. The decision to close this fishery was made as the result of public hearings held last July, in response to declining catches in the river and adjacent areas.

At those hearings, concerns were voiced that catch rates had declined substantially since 1981, generally recognized as the last good fishing year for flounder. Independent research sampling verified the declining population observed by fishermen in Niantic.

“There is no evidence to suggest that the decline is catastrophic,” Jones said. “We were concerned enough with the present trend, however, to recommend that the fishery on the spawning grounds be closed to maximize egg production and eventual recruitment to the spawning stock. The closure is simply intended to provide greater assurance that the fishery will return to its former condition in coming years.

“While lower than usual,” Jones observed, “catches in other areas have not declined as noticeably as they have in the Niantic, Environmental conditions, such as the absence of submerged aquatic vegetation in some areas which previously supported such vegetation, may have been a factor in the decline. This is a subject we intend to consider very carefully in the future, in cooperation with interested local officials, scientists and other concerned citizens.”

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