Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Mother nature’s artistry……a spinner shark traversing a small school of menhaden.
Menhaden are living sculptures, very dear to my heart and by far the most important fish in our sea.
Light plays across the school in constant motion. Scales catch the sun and flash in waves that travel through the group faster than any single fish can swim. When the school turns, the flash becomes a rolling mirror. When it tightens under threat, it becomes a dense, pulsing mass that can look solid one moment and dissolve into lime green smoke the next.
The school becomes more efficient than the sum of its parts. At the same time, the constant, fluid rearrangements make it harder for predators to lock onto a single target. Unfortunately, these are juveniles, which is all I see these days. They are even more difficult to catch for predators.
I flew over 6 beaches, 8 miles of coastline to find just one small school this week. Which is quite sad considering 3 years ago our shoreline was packed with massive schools lining a huge portion of the Long Island coast in New York.
To help support saving the New England coastal ecosystem by protecting menhaden, please see foragefishcampaign.org
It all starts in Chesapeake Bay where they reproduce.
Mother nature’s artistry……a spinner shark traversing a small school of menhaden.
Menhaden are living sculptures, very dear to my heart and by far the most important fish in our sea.
Light plays across the school in constant motion. Scales catch the sun and flash in waves that travel through the group faster than any single fish can swim. When the school turns, the flash becomes a rolling mirror. When it tightens under threat, it becomes a dense, pulsing mass that can look solid one moment and dissolve into lime green smoke the next.
The school becomes more efficient than the sum of its parts. At the same time, the constant, fluid rearrangements make it harder for predators to lock onto a single target. Unfortunately, these are juveniles, which is all I see these days. They are even more difficult to catch for predators.
I flew over 6 beaches, 8 miles of coastline to find just one small school this week. Which is quite sad considering 3 years ago our shoreline was packed with massive schools lining a huge portion of the Long Island coast in New York.
To help support saving the New England coastal ecosystem by protecting menhaden, please see foragefishcampaign.org
It all starts in Chesapeake Bay where they reproduce.
