By Carl Lobue
As the Sr. Marine Scientist for The Nature Conservancy on Long Island, Carl LoBue was struggling with how to effectively communicate alarming scientific findings concerning the health of Long Island’s waters to Long Island’s residents and public servants. So in 2015 he partnered with Patchogue based Red Vault Productions and together they enlisted a dozen Long Islanders to tell their own stories on film. The results are a visually stunning series of 4 minute personal narratives that provide motivation to protect and restore astounding places that are uniquely Long Island.
Islands are for boaters
There are times when I envy my friends and colleagues who live in places where ice is what you get from the freezer to cool down drinks, rather than what you scrape off your windshield before going to work. Those times are never in May when the fluke are biting, in July when the tuna swim close to shore, or in October when the tog are chewing. But right about now, when the nights are longest and boaters and fisherman like me are going through the annual ritual of winterizing and packing it all away until some seemingly long off spring day… well, those are the times that places with year-round boating seasons seem pretty darn good.
If life’s circumstances allowed (and I had a bigger boat) my friends on Long Island would see the stern of my boat heading south just after Thanksgiving. At least that’s what I think about as bang my frozen bloody knuckles while struggling to once again lift heavy deep cycle batteries out of their compartments so they can rest in the basement until the snow makes way for crocuses.
In my alternate reality I’m not sure where I would land, but I suspect it would be another island, because islands are where fisherman and boaters are most at home. Long Island is no exception, but I worry about its future.
