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Where's Marty? Meeting photographer Peter Turcik at Mallows Bay

Where's Marty? Capturing natural beauty with photographer Peter Turcik
Where's Marty? Capturing natural beauty with photographer Peter Turcik 03:02

Hi everyone!

Today's story begins on Mallows Bay, a bay nestled along the Potomac River in Charles County. 

A little background: if you look at a navigation map of the river, you will see a symbol that looks like hash marks and a dotted circle, which indicates a submerged obstruction.

Besides letting boaters know to steer clear of the obstruction, that marker is the rough location of the so-called Ghost Fleet of Mallows Bay. 

The fleet includes some shipwrecks dating back to the Civil War era, but most are World War I-era ships that never made it into action, instead getting scrapped for parts and being burned in the Potomac, according to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

These days, Mallows Bay is a large freshwater marine sanctuary. All sorts of aquatic life call the shipwreck-riddled bar home. And in 2016, a local photographer, writer and editor by the name of Peter Tucik captured a photo that has become a U.S. postage stamp.

As you might have guessed, Turcik is pretty handy with a camera and he has a good eye. He told us the U.S. Postal Service is highlighting marine sanctuaries across the country. They saw Turcik's photo and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Do yourself a favor and check out Turcik's website.

It was our pleasure bringing you Turcik's story this morning.

Until next time,

- Marty B!

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