Charter Fishing Boats
"Head boats" like the one shown are our major competition every morning - racing out to get to the best spots first. If you want to know why dive boats leave so god-awful early in the morning, this is one reason. Their behavior depends on the captain - many are friendly and accommodating, others are downright rude, and some won't even answer the radio. Dive boats sometimes recover lost anchors for the friendly boats, which can be quite a production, since some of them have very big anchors!
There are three basic types of commercial fishing vessels found in the Mid-Atlantic region: trawlers, seiners/gill-netters, and long-liners. A trawler or "dragger" operates by towing its fishing gear across the bottom. Weighted nets take bottom fishes, while cage-like steel dredges take clams and scallops. A seiner uses a floating net to encircle schools of surface-swimming fishes such as herring and tuna. A long-liner sets out miles of buoyed line with baited hooks to catch sharks, tuna, and swordfish. One could also add lobster boats and charter fishing or "head" boats to this list. And of course, dive boats.
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