Outdoor Notes : Saltwater Sportfishing Helps Economy--Study

A study financed in part by the National Marine Fisheries Service indicates saltwater sportfishing in Southern California fuels economic activity in excess of $2 billion.

The study, using 1983 as the study year, reports that saltwater sportfishing is responsible for between 17,000 and 25,000 jobs, that sales tax revenues puts $27.2 million to $42 million per year into the state’s general fund, and that 1,491,000 anglers took 5,039,000 saltwater fishing trips in Southern California in 1983.

The study was presented to the state’s Fish and Game Commission recently by the National Coalition for Marine Conservation.

Commenting on the study, an NCMC spokesman said: “Commercial fishing dominance of the political system and fisheries management has been based largely on the illusion that their industry (commercial fishing) was a large and important one. It is clear from this study that the economic importance of saltwater angling dwarfs the commercial fishing industry’s contributions.”

Gene Voelkel, a Walnut Creek, Calif., heart surgeon, missed a listed world record by three pounds when he caught a 913-pound Pacific blue marlin on a hotel boat at Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, recently.

Voelkel, who fought his fish for two hours on 80-pound test line, caught the 15-foot-long marlin six miles off the Gordo Point, one of the favored marlin fishing sites for Cabo San Lucas-based boats.

The fish was one of the three or four largest ever weighed in on the Cabo San Lucas city scale. The listed International Game Fish Assn. world record for 80-pound test is a 916-pound catch at Kona, Hawaii, in 1973. Voelkel caught his fish on a Finisterra Tortuga boat, Tortuga 4, skippered by Capt. Jaime Banaga.

Said Voelkel: “I saw it behind the boat and it scared me to death. I could see it come out of the water and then it jumped on the jig and I thought the whole thing was something out of ‘Jaws.’ ”

Said Voelkel’s fishing partner, Paul Simonsen: “The fish was near the surface the whole time, but, oh boy, did it take a lot of line. At one point, Gene had only 50 yards left, and I thought it was all over. The toughest part of all was when we got the fish to the boat. He went crazy when the first gaff went in him, and went under the boat. Even after we had a second gaff in him, it still took an hour to get him tied up.”

If a Michigan State University experiment is successful, Great Lakes fishermen could be catching some world class salmon in a few years.

Michigan State fisheries biologists are using a process they call “heat shock” on king salmon eggs, which, they believe, could result in sterile fish.

Explained biologist Don Garling: “We’re trying to produce a chinook (king) that is sterile. If the fish is sterile, it shouldn’t return to a stream to spawn and then die. Hopefully, it will simply continue to grow and live longer, and achieve a bigger size.”

The salmon eggs are being “heat shocked” at 88 degrees. Normally, biologists say fish embryos lose chromosomes as they mature, but project biologists believe the heat process will alter their chromosomal structure.

Briefly Six international big-game hunters have been nominated for the Weatherby Big Game Trophy, to be presented Dec. 3 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The nominees: Thornton Snider, Turlock, Calif.; Dr. James Conklin, McKeesport, Pa.; Hector Cuellar, Guanajuato, Mexico; Dante Marrocco, Palos Verdes Estates; Robert Chisholm, Wichita, Kan., and Robert W. Kubik, Anchorage, Alaska. . . .The Dodger Stadium Recreation Vehicle Show, with 10 acres of vacation vehicles on display, ends Sunday at 7 p.m. Because of closures on Northern California coastal rivers, the DFG recommends fishermen call a DFG number, (707) 442-9033, before departing for fishing trips. . . . Judy Kemp, Anaheim, placed third in the National Rifle Assn.’s recent women’s sport pistol competition at the Championships of the Americas at Ft. Benning, Ga. Don Bullock’s Gun & Collectors Show is scheduled for the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, Nov. 30-Dec. 1. . . . The DFG has asked the Fish and Game Commission to include the West Fork of the San Gabriel River in the State’s wild trout program. . . . In its December issue, Cruising World magazine will publish a witness’ account of the Sept. 25 storming of an Israeli yacht by Palestinian terrorists in Cyprus waters. . . . Redondo Sport Fishing at King Harbor Marina is offering discounts of up to $10 for senior citizens (65 or older) on half-, three-quarter and all-day boats.