I probably shouldn’t mention it, but the hurricane season has been extremely quiet. And that’s great news for everyone, including fishermen. For this, we can thank the unusually strong El Niño weather pattern that was first noticed by Peruvian fishermen centuries ago.
For those not in the know, El Niño is a natural climate phenomenon that features higher than normal surface water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean, rather than far to the west near Asia.
What this boils down to is that El Niño adds a monkey wrench into our weather patterns as well as vertical wind shear that makes it harder for thunderstorms to organize into hurricanes in the Atlantic basin. The climatological peak for hurricanes is Sept. 10. Fingers crossed that we are in the clear.
Speaking of hurricanes and all things weather, I’m reminded of Richard Hendrickson, a chicken farmer who lived on Lumber Lane in Bridgehampton. Hendrickson, who died in 2016 at the age of 103, was legendary for his meteorological knowledge and his incredible storytelling.
Want to hear more about the great hurricane of 1938? What about the blizzard of 1978? How bad was the weather 75 years ago on Sept. 1, 1951, when 45 souls perished aboard the Pelican, a party boat out of Montauk that violently overturned? Hendrickson could have told you everything and then some.
Incredibly gentle and soft-spoken, in 1930 at the age of 18, he logged his first weather observation for the U.S. Weather Bureau, the precursor to the NOAA National Weather Service. For the next 85 years, he filed twice-daily reports totaling over 150,000 individual weather observations.
I’m a weather junkie who has just about every weather app on my iPhone, and Hendrickson always had the time to talk weather with me, including the effects of El Niño and La Niña, before both phenomena were on most people’s proverbial radar.
“Richard was smart as a fox,” recalled Harvey Bennett of East Hampton, who was close friends with Hendrickson for over 50 years. “He loved to talk all things weather. And he was darn good at it.”
“He was a very special and kind man who really loved weather,” said George Everett of Bridgehampton, who knew Hendrickson for over 75 years. “He used the love going to the schools and other groups and talk about it. His views were interesting and very accurate.”
Recent data point to an intense, potentially record-setting “super El Niño” event coming up. This active cycle is projected to continue influencing global climate conditions well into 2027. I’d be curious to hear Hendrickson’s thoughts on this today.
As hurricanes remain at bay, Capt. David Blinken of North Flats Guiding, a light-tackle expert who sails out of East Hampton, is gearing up for some false albacore action.
“There have been rumors of them near Block Island and Fire Island to the west,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before they show up near here.”
Blinken said there have been some striped bass “here and there scattered about, but we really need a moratorium on the fish. . . . Things are pretty bad.” Like many, the experienced skipper has seen a significant decrease in the striper population, especially small fish.
As for bluefish, Blinken noted that the feisty fish are thick from Montauk all the way to Bostwick Point at the northern end of Gardiner’s Island.
Over at Mrs. Sam’s Bait and Tackle in East Hampton, Sebastian Gorgone said that small bluefish are in the ocean wash, along with a few striped bass. “If you see the birds working and diving on baitfish, you know the fish are there,” he said.
Gorgone added that sea bass are running bigger, especially on the north side of Plum Island. He also noted that porgies and snappers remain plentiful.
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