Sea Kayaking and Kayak Fishing Cape Cod: Monomoy Island Off Chatham

Monomoy Island off Chatham, Massachusetts (Cape Cod) is a worthy destination for anyone with a kayak or tin skiff or trailerable powerboat. The area is filled with challenges: shifting channels, wandering sandbars, frequent fogs and prevailing southwesterly winds that kick up lively chop during the summer.

I've recently updated my Google Map of the area to indicate the closure of the South Beach gap, the location of the seal colonies, and other points of interest, including put-ins and specifics on the serpentine channels that connect one of the islands to the other at all tides.

You can purchase the map for $3.50, via paypal, through payloadz.com.

Enter $3.50 as payment through your paypal account and you'll receive a link, via email, to download the file.

Monomoy's southern and eastern shores are home to a large gray seal population and numerous species of migratory sea- and shorebirds. Last summer a small handful of the grey seals, some in excess of 500 pounds, were hunted down and chewed over by great white sharks that have since been tagged by NOAA as having travelled this past winter to Florida.

The island's watery environs are seasonal feeding grounds for numerous migratory fish species: striped bass, bonito, bluefish, bluefin tuna and pelagic sportfish that feed in the area's warm summer waters after swimming in from the not-too-distant Gulf Stream.

The island has a tortuous (and torturous) geomorphic history. Once a long spit attached to the mainland at Chatham, Monomoy soon became an island. Then it became two islands. Most recently, as of November 2006, it became a small island and a nominal second island that has re-attached itself to the mainland by way of the outlying barrier beach that, in turn, attached itself to the mainland about twenty years ago.

The above is a jpg image of the Google Earth kml file I've written for the area. If you want the file (it requires free Google Earth to open) use the Monomoy Island payloadz link. The interactive file allows you to zoom into and out of the area, read the attached navigation notes, gather lat/long coordinates, and a host of other features.

The file also includes a wide array of nav and landmark notes.

To enlarge the image above, double-click on it. The image will appear on a new page. On the jpg you'll see Google Earth layered and interactive landmarks are located within the interactive Google Earth file.

US Fish and Wildlife: Monomoy Wildlife RefugeSea Kayaking Dot Net
North American Kayak Fishing