Pea soup is the best way to describe the air as Brian Goguen begins scanning the sand at Mattapoisett Beach.

Goguen, a Rochester resident, is a modern day “treasure hunter” who frequents local beaches in search of precious metals.

“I do a lot of metal detecting. As much as I can get out,” said Goguen. “My wife was the one who wanted to play around with it. She lost interest and I got hooked.”

Goguen has upgraded his equipment three times.

His current waterproof machine is so high-tech that it can sense the approximate size and type of metal of a piece up to two-feet underground.

An employee at Titlest in New Bedford, Goguen usually gets off work at 3 p.m. That gives him a few hours of light to hunt.

While beachcombing, Goguen said he often encounters other metal detectors.

“Metal detecting has gone up 200 percent in past years,” he said.

From Mattapoisett and Marion to Narragansett and Cape Cod, Goguen is always searching for valuable gold and silver washed ashore from old ships and left behind by beachgoers.

“Where there’s people, there’s stuff,” he said.

Persistence and a good machine have paid off for Goguen. Last year, he cashed in just under $1,600.

Among his gold and silver finds, Goguen has uncovered old coins, gold watches, Portuguese gold, bracelets, rings, and even an urn.

The latter he quickly returned to the sea.

Since class rings and many other pieces of jewelry have names engraved on them, Goguen tries to return lost pieces whenever possible.

“I Google up somebody on the Internet and sometimes you get the people who own them,” he said.

A few months ago, Goguen found a solid gold ring with a cross at Marion’s Silvershell Beach. He tracked down the wife of the owner.

“Come to find out her husband had died of leukemia. I ended up giving her the ring back. It was a nice give back.”

I guess you could say Goguen has a heart of gold.