Roger Edwards fishes a lot near the Navy jetty at Herring Point in Cape Henlopen State Park. One day recently he was keeping a steady eye on his line when a pelican struggling in the waves well beyond the surf caught his attention.
“I saw that it couldn’t get up,” he said.
Earlier, Roger had seen a group of young people with a kayak and paddleboards on the swimmers’ beach to the north of where he was fishing.
“There were two girls and a guy. All teachers at the Milton elementary school, I think. I told them what I was seeing and my concern. ‘Sure, we’ll go check it out,’ they told me. One jumped in the kayak and another took out on a paddleboard. One of the girls stayed with their stuff on the beach.”
Game on.
Roger said the two ended up paddling about a mile to help the pelican. “They kept paddling and so did the pelican. He’d want to get up, he’d try to get up, but he was tangled in some kind of line and couldn't.”
Finally the kayaker was able to get in front of the tiring bird to slow its progress. Then the two of them were able to calm the bird and release it from the line. “I think it was caught up in a mullet rig. That kind of rig has a float on it, so I think it must have gotten away from a fisherman and was out there floating when the pelican got caught up in it,” said Roger. “After they released it, it flew away.”
Victory.
“I just think it was notable – a story worth telling. That’s why I called.”
Roger retired from SPI Pharma, the pharmaceutical company that mines seawater from intake pipes under the fishing pier in the park. The company uses chemistry to precipitate aluminum hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide from seawater for use in antacids and other health products. He's a friend of my buddy Ralph Short, another avid fisherman, who also spent a long career at SPI Pharma.
“I retired four years ago after 38 years at SPI Pharma and I’m loving every minute of it,” said Roger. “I fish every day that I can. Been catching a few kingfish lately. Good eating fish. Seeing lots of pelicans and dolphins. Fortunately, no more hung up in stray lines.”
He keeps a close eye on what goes on around him.
He said a lady walks up toward the Navy jetty every day from the Whiskey Beach parking lot. That’s the parking lot at the south entrance to Cape Henlopen State Park at Gordons Pond. There was a time when it was an isolated beach where people felt free to drink, away from municipal authorities.
“I asked her one day whether she has found any treasures. She said no, she just picks up trash. Now when I see her, I take her bag of trash to take off the beach and give her an empty one for her walk back. People like that need recognition every once in a while. Her name is Lynn. She has a place at Angola.”
The morning I spoke with Roger, he said a guy pulled up near his rig. “He was proposing to his girlfriend. I don’t blame him. She was beautiful. But at my age, they all look beautiful.”
The man didn’t have a pole holder. He needed his whole setup to be legal. “I had an extra one in my Jeep, so I gave it to him.”
Those are the kind of little scenes Roger runs across when he’s on the beach. He appreciates other people, being around them, and sees the good. In little things and in big things.
“There’s so many instances where people get called on and they have performed,” said Roger. “These people did too, and to me it’s worth noticing.”
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Dennis Forney has been a journalist on the Delmarva Peninsula since 1972 and has been writing his Barefootin’ column for The Whale and then the Cape Gazette for more than 30 years. He blogs at www.capegazette.com/blogs/dennisforney. Contact Dennis at dennisforney@capegazette.com.
