As a teen in Miami in the 1950s, Marti Saconchik-Pytel spent summers working as a mate on her dad's charter boat based at Haulover Park. "We'd go out to the old Haulover bridge and catch bally hoo and mullet in a net and it was my job to put it in the pail," Saconchik-Pytel recalled. "There was a lot of fish at that time dolphin, kingfish, sailfish, marlin. My dad knew where the places were."

Four years ago, her dad, Captain John Sacon, died in Tallahassee at 84. Saconchik-Pytel vows that the little piece of Miami's angling history that belonged to her dad will not die with him. She is urging Miami-Dade County to erect a memorial plaque at the site of the first Haulover commercial dock located near the current park fire station - to honor the captain of the MARTHA MARY and his colleagues who kept their boats there in the '30s and '40s.

"I brought my father down here the year before he died," Saconchik-Pytel said. "He remarked to me that people never knew the old fishermen existed at the old dock". "That's when it hit me. History has always told us about Brickell and Flagler. There were other people who were pioneers like those people, charter boat fishermen, and they deserve a marker too."

Saconchik-Pytel, a retired teacher, counselor and school psychologist living in Tallahassee, has spent the past few years documenting the history of what used to be known as the Lighthouse Docks before the park was established in 1944. Pouring over old photographs and documents from the Metropolitan South Florida Fishing Tournament, Saconchik-Pytel has identified 15 captains and their boats, who worked there. She wants to make sure she turns up all the captains and their vessels so that no names will be left off the memorial plaque.

Saconchik-Pytel has met with Haulover Park manager Jim Hoover and scheduled a meeting with Miami-Dade County Commissioner Gwen Margolis seeking support and funding. Meanwhile, she is asking for the public's help to find gaps in her research. Anyone with photographs. documents or memories of the old Lighthouse Docks can contact Saconchik-Pytel by e-mail at martha_pytel@haulover.us

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