[Billfish715]

As I was sitting with Jeff Dement in his office at the Littoral Society on Sandy Hook, he almost exploded off his chair toward the window shouting "It's a Waterfall"! When I turned around I could see what he saw. There were thousands of gannets diving into the waters off Officers' Row. The phenomenon is often referred to a "waterfall". I quickly grabbed my camera and took off down the stairs to the water's edge. Traffic on the road was slowing down as everyone took in the incredible aerial show. The scene looked like something out of a WWII movie with white streaks of feathers dropping into the water like darts. The surface of the bay was foaming white from their dive bombing acrobatics. What an incredible sight to see in person!

The bait they were on was widespread and working into the wind toward the south end of the bay. Whether they were bunkers or herring was not evident but there was a huge school of them. What was ironic about it all was that while the fish were trying to escape the gannets, their escape route was taking them directly toward the seals which were on Skeleton Island.

I've seen gannets during the fall when they help pinpoint stripers but this flock must have been the entire migratory population of birds that are headed toward Nova Scotia and north! Wow!