Rockport Harbormaster
Search for:        

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 


 

Harbormaster & Waterfront Committee Reports

Annual Reports for year ending December 31, 2005.

Rockport Harbor Department
Town Report 2006

The Rockport Harbor Department is an active part of the Town of Rockport with a busy waterfront spanning from Folly Cove to the southern end of Long Beach. Each year we host hundreds of visiting boaters who either secure in the harbor or anchor out in Sandy Bay. This year we experienced a heavy volume of transient boaters who enjoyed the shops, restaurants and waterfront.

The tourist season started early this year in February with a family from Germany enjoying strudel on the Neck and taking family photographs. As they were taking a shot of their two little girls a very large seagull swooped in and lifted up a fanny pack that contained their valuable papers passport etc. The gull flew out into the middle of the harbor and dropped the pocket book into the water and flew off. After a frantic call from a local merchant the harbormasters paddled out and rescued the bag before it went to the bottom. The family was very grateful and will always remember their trip to Rockport.

In the winter months the harbormasters oversee harbormaster training at the Salem Police Department. These harbormaster certification classes run for 60-70 hours a year with “on the water” training in the spring. The total number of hours for certification is 351hours. Three out of the four Rockport Harbormasters are certified with the fourth near completion. This training includes law enforcement on the water along with numerous hours of maritime training.

As preparations were getting underway to put the floats in for the season a discovery was made by a local diver of a vehicle upside down in the harbor at Granite Pier. Upon further investigation it was determined that the vehicle’s owner had been missing for several months and the investigation took another turn in Rockport.

Early in May preparations were being made to make a presentation to the Seaport Bond Council in Boston to request funds to begin testing the harbor bottom at Old Harbor for future dredging. Later in the summer the funds were granted to plan for the soil testing procedures.

Memorial Day weekend was the chosen weekend for our much anticipated new Rockport main town floats. The 2 - 16’x16’ floats arrived Sunday in the early morning hours on a large flat bed truck and were unloaded at Granite Pier on the launching ramp at low tide. As the tide came up the 2 floats were secured together and later towed over to Rockport Harbor and put in place. The old town floats were over 50 years old and it was finally time to retire them.

June brought the completion of the seawall repair to White Wharf. This work secured the end of the outer breakwall on the North West side of the harbor. This work will continue the protection of the waterfront in the Bearskin Neck and down town area.

The summer months brought routine boating traffic and numerous overnight visitors to the harbor and Sandy Bay. Hot weather and lightning storms contributed to the activity in the harbor.

As Harbormaster/Shellfish officers the harbormasters are on patrol for shellfish violations. Short lobsters, egg bearing lobsters and V notch lobsters plus diving without a flag are among the top violations.

The harbormasters work towards improving the water front and continuing the Homeland Security efforts that are going on up and down the coast. Each year training and meetings on these waterfront concerns increase due to the country's efforts for homeland security.

The Rockport Harbor Department operates 24/7 year round. Office hours are on Thursday nights 7-8:30pm or by appointment. harbormaster@town.rockport.ma.us
978-546-9589

Harbormaster Rosemary Lesch/Harbormaster Scott Story
Assistant Harbormaster Ron Petoff
Assistant Harbormaster Story Reed


home

home  |  contact