A Fisherman Makes a Difference

Popular charter fishing boat captain Al Anderson has been named one of five winners nationwide of Sports Fishing Magazine's "Making A Difference Awards.” Anderson, of Narragansett, runs the boat “Prowler” out of Ram Point Marina in South Kingstown.

Anderson was cited for his contribution to the scientific understanding of migratory fishes in the Northeast. For years he has tagged thousands of fish for the American Littoral Society, Woods Hole and the National Marine Fisheries Service. His fish story starts a long time ago though.

“I blame it all on my mother” he said of his love of fishing. “As a child at PS #7 in Woodbridge, NJ, we got to leave school for an hour for lunch. My mother worked nearby as a secretary and she would pick me up and I would hop in our 1938 Plymouth and we would head down to the river. With a bent pin, string and a stick I was introduced to Pumpkinseed fish.”

Throughout his life as a teacher and researcher fishing remained a constant. During college at Fairleigh Dickinson University, he and a friend would be frequently late to class after a break to fish. Arriving still clad in their waders and hauling buckets of trout, they made up for their tardiness to biology class by fileting the fish in the lab sink.

While pursuing a master's degree in fisheries parasitology at Aldephi University on Long Island, Anderson got the idea of tagging the fish he was catching. He was curious about their habits and where they would go. Still a fresh water fisherman at that time, he devised a copper wire tag and in a three year period caught the same large mouth bass five times. He was hooked. Then he arrived at URI to work on his doctorate and salt water fishing quickly claimed his attention.

His teaching career took him from Adelphi and URI to Westerly High School, teaching primarily biology. In the early 1980s he decided to retire from his vocation to follow his avocation - fishing. He used part of his retirement savings to build a boat and never looked back.

“It's been a great time in my life,” Anderson said.

He was introduced to Frank Mather of Woods Hole, who was designing tags for Blue Fin Tuna. Excited to continue researching and fulfilling his curiosity about where the fish went, Anderson was happy to catch, tag, weigh and release.

According to the Cooperative Fish Tagging Agency of the National Fisheries Service, Anderson is responsible for tagging 5,500 Blue Fin Tuna, more than anyone else in the world.

Humble as ever, Captain Anderson gives the credit to his charter clients.

“They deserve the credit,” he said. Once the boat reaches its keep limit they stay out on the ocean tagging and releasing as a way to keep the day going.

Anderson's tags have shattered what scientists once thought about the range of the Blue Fin Tuna.

“Tuna with my tags have been recaptured in the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Bordeaux, France, in the Straights of Gibraltar, and off the shores of Corsica and Sicily,” he said.

Today, our Rhode Island stocks of Blue Fin are less than 5 percent of what they were in the 1960s, due to overfishing. Anderson has also been a huge proponent of conservation of fish stocks.

With more than 220 articles to his name and five books, Captain Anderson keeps teaching others. His latest book, “Over Winter Striper Secrets,” gives away all his secrets for catching striped bass that over winter in the estuaries of the Northeast. The book is available in bookstores and on Amazon.com. The book draws from 13 years of winter fishing experience to help tell the history of striped bass in Rhode Island.

Captain Anderson's boat “Prowler” is available for a variety of charted fishing trips for tuna, shark, bass and more. In addition to the sport, expect a good dose of history, knowledge and fish tails.