Jay Fleming Photography

 David Edwards catches Snapping Turtles in the Choptank River. Snappers are sold live to local turtle farms, Asia and to the Southern United States.

 There are four generations of waterman in the Edward family. Bill, pictured here, fishes fyke nets during the late winter and early spring, crabs in the summer and hand tongs in the winter

waterman Mike Malczewski cuts up bait (gizzard shad) on the way to his Catfish pots in the Tuckahoe River

The Manning family works pound nets in the Chester River

Atlantic Menhaden are the primary catch of Tilghman Island pound netters, these fish are used for crab bait

Getting ready for a days work, Tilghman Island

pulling and moving pots, Choptank River

picking up pots as the Haddaway family has done for generations

‘Aurora’ stands proudly behind her owners catch of crabs

 The moon sets behind an abandoned home in the marsh of Dorchester County

 The Price family plot on one of Holland Island’s cemeteries, this island has been subject to severe erosion, the main reason the community was abandoned in the 1930′s

The USAS American Mariner was decommissioned in 1966 and scuttled into the shallow waters of Tangier Sound, she was used as a target for Naval Weapons training.Now the ship is home to nesting Peregrine Falcons

a peeler crab hides in a bed of Eel Grass, Smith Island

Spawning Hickory Shad, Alosa mediocris, in the Susquehanna River Watershed

 River Herring such as these Alewife Herring, Alosa pseudoharengus, and other anadromous fish return to their natal rivers to spawn every spring

American Shad Eggs, Maryland DNR Finfish Hatchery

spawning Sea Lamprey, Susquehanna River watershed

Brook Lamprey gather in the spring to complete their life cycle, once these adults spawn they will die

Warm weather this spring prompted a massive American Toad, Bufo americanus, spawn on Deer Creek, a tributary to the Susquehanna River

freshly laid American Toad Eggs

There were more waterman hand tonging this year than in the last 10 years. These waterman from Tilghman Island are working the bottom of Broad Creek off the Choptank River.

Floyd ‘Bunky’ Chance Jr. pulls a lick of the bottom of Broad Creek with a pair of 22′ Hand Tongs made in Bozman, Maryland. Harvesting oysters with hand tongs is a method that has been used for over 250 years.

Bunky Chance stands on his workboat, in the background is his buy boat Ocean View that is used for oyster Restoration projects with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources

Troy Miller, a Tilghman Island waterman pulls a lick off the bottom of Broad Creek while his deckhand culls oysters

Michael Kilmon, a deckhand on the Mistress empties oysters onto the culling board

Tyrone Meredith out of Chester, Maryland

Matt Garrett of Easton, Maryland hand tongs out of his wooden boat Southern Miss made in Deltaville, Virginia

Hand Tongers out of Neavitt aboard the Dreamer, a Chesapeake Deadrise

Hand Tongers  line up on a oyster bar in Broad Creek

Tundra Swan

 drake Bufflehead

Lesser Scaup

Snow Moon rising over a raft of Canvasbacks, Upper Chesapeake Bay

Billy Crockett, a Eastern Shore of Virginia master carver, puts the finishing touches on a drake Pintail

Patent tongers and dredgers leaving the wharf in Wenona

Teddy Daniels, grandson of Art Daniels, operates the yawl boat as the Hilda Willing leaves the wharf at Chance

Chris Johns Powell, a deckhand on the City of Crisfield guides the skipjack up the gas dock on the last day of Maryland’s 2012-2013 oystering season

Art Daniels, captain of the City of Crisfield takes his skipjack to the oystering grounds as crew member Robby Lee explains where he thinks the biggest oysters will be. ‘Daddy Art’ as he is known on the island is 92 years old and is the oldest Captain in the Skipjack fleet.

The crew aboard the City of Crisfield drops the dredge for another ‘lick’ on a hill in Tangier Sound

Captain Stoney Whitelock drops the dredge off the Hilda Willing 

the crew aboard the Hilda Willing empties the dredge on deck

Sail Dredging aboard the Hilda Willing

Lunch aboard the City of Crisfield

Crew aboard the City of Crisfield prepares the days haul of oysters for unloading at the wharf, where the boat will meet the wholesalers

Cornelius White also known as ‘TD’ proudly stands next to his pile of oysters on the last day of the season

A crew member aboard the Hilda Willing rests on the way back to the wharf

Wholesalers and crew unload oysters off the City of Crisfield, these oysters are destined for shucking houses in Maryland, Virginia and even some gulf coast states

‘Daddy’ Art pays his crew at the end of the day

Captain Dave Whitlock, aboard the Hilda Willing, is the youngest captain in the Skipjack fleet. In this photograph he is tallying the bushel count for the day as the wholesalers unload

Captain Harold ‘Stony’ Whitlock uses a angle grinder to smooth the cutwater on the bow of his Skipjack Kathryn. During the annual Skipjack races in 2011 the Kathryn hit a buoy and popped a plank. This event prompted the restoration of the boat.

Stoney Whitelock hammers cotton in between planks on the deck of the Kathryn, this is a method used to make wooden boats water tight

Mike Vlahovich, director of the Coastal Heritage Alliance, is a master ship builder from St. Micheals, Maryland. His organization is dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of commercial fishing in the United States. The group has funding to work on the restoration of Kathryn three days a month.

John Rafter is volunteering with Mike Vlahovich and Captain Whitlock to rebuild the Kathryn. In this picture he installing is a rib that has been custom cut to fit into the skipjack

writer Randall Peffer cuts nails off the bottom of the Kathryn

After more than 60 years of oystering, Art Daniels still enjoys the taste of a Chesapeake ‘arster’

Art Daniels and his wife Stella look through scrapbooks containing memories of skipjacks dating back 60 years. Stella’s father, Stanford White, was a skipjack captain and raced against ‘Daddy’ Art in the annual Skipjack Races

Blue Crab ecdysis, Callinectes sapidus

Green Sea Turtle

Lined Seahorse

Pipefish

Gray Shrimp

Juvenile Red Drum

Stone Crab

Tulip Snail

West Indian Manatee

Striped Mullet, Mugil cephalus

fly fishing for Red Drum, Sciaenops ocellatus

Raccoon,

Marbled Godwit, Limosa fedoa

Wood Storks

Roseate Spoonbill

Great Egret, Laughing Gull and Pinfish

Snowy Egrets

Male Hard Clam spawning

Female Hard Clam siphon after spawning

Fowling Point

Broadwater, Hog Island

 

A graveyard on Tangier Island falls victim to rising sea level and erosion

Hurricane Sandy (October 2012) uncovered shallow graves, now these graves are underwater on high tide

The ‘Uppards’ on Tangier Island was once the site of a community with 30 homes, a school and a general store. Residents moved off the Uppards to the main town on Tangier after the destructive Hurricanes of the 1930′s

the moon rises over a Chesapeake Deadrise abandoned in the marsh

Bay Islands arrowheads

Waterfowl Hunting

Hard Clam, Mercenaria mercenaria

foggy morning on the marsh

Wingate, Maryland

Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout, Oncorhynchus clarkii bouvieri

young of the year Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout

Arctic Grayling, Thymallus arcticus

Rainbow Trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

Golden Trout, Oncorhynchus aguabonita

Lake Trout Eggs, Yellowstone Lake

Brook Trout, Salvelinus fontinalis

Golden Stonefly, Hesperoperia pacifica, nymph

Salmonfly, Pteronarcys californica, nymph

Salmonfly hatch, Yellowstone River

Blotched Tiger Salmander, Ambystoma mavortium melanostictum

larval Blotched Tiger Salamander

River Otter, Lontra canadensis, and Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout

Grizzly Bear, Ursus arctos horribilis

Pronghorn, Antilocapra americana

American Bison, Bison bison

Harlequin Duck, Histrionicus histrionicus

American Coot chick, Fulica american

Blue Grouse, Dendragapus fuliginosus

West Thumb, Yellowstone Lake

Bull Elk, Cervus canadensis

Elk skull, Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River

fall Elk rut and Mt. Sheridan

American Lotus, Nelumbo lutea, Beula Lake

Bechler Meadows spiderweb

Yellowstone Lake reflections

Yellowstone Lake geyser

Grand Prismatic Geyser

Blue Moon rising over Castle Geyser

Rabbit Creek Geyser Basin

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Lewis Lake

Schwabacher Landing of the Snake River, Grand Teton National Park

Sylvan Lake, Beartooth Mountains

Lewis Falls, Lewis River

Bechler River Meadows

Iris Falls, Bechler River

twilight on the Firehole River

Pelican Creek, Yellowstone Lake

Hayden Valley, Yellowstone River

Fine-spotted Cutthroat Trout, Onchyrynchus Clarkii behnkei Snake River

West Thumb, Yellowstone Lake

Sylvan Lake, Beartooth Mountains

Marsh moon-set

abandoned excavator succumbs to rising sea level

19th century bay island cemetery

Blackwater River

Hickory Shad, Susquehanna River Watershed

Margined Madtom, Noturus insignis

Slimy Sculpin, Cottus cognatus

American Eel, Anguilla rostrata

American Toad, Bufo americanus

Marbled Salamander Larvae, Ambystoma opacum

Black Snake, Pantherophis obsoletus

Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo

Brown Pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis

Double Crested Cormorant, Phalacrocorax auritus

Osprey, Pandion haliaetus

Tricolored Heron, Egretta tricolor

Great Egret and chicks, Ardea alba

Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias