Fishing Vessels Snag Trouble at Ventura Harbor : Fisheries: Debut of longline boats, which drag 40 miles of line connected to about 800 hooks, irks anglers, environmentalists.

As the St. Vincent One unloaded its cargo in the early morning fog at Ventura Harbor, a crowd of curious passers-by gathered to watch the spectacle.

One by one, a crane lifted the giant carcasses of deep-sea swordfish, big-eye tuna, mako shark, dorado and the red-speckled tropical fish called opah out of the boat’s hold and onto a dockside scale.

In three hours, the 100-foot commercial fishing vessel unloaded about 11 tons of highly-priced fish, the kind of catch rarely seen at tiny Ventura Harbor.

“I’ve never seen anyone bring this much fish into the harbor before,” dockmaster John Donnelly said as the boat was unloaded earlier this month. “These guys have brought in tons of fish. Some of this stuff I’ve never even seen before.”

The deep-sea smorgasbord is a sight that will soon become commonplace at the once-quiet commercial fish landing.

Harbor officials said they are excited to have attracted the fleet, but acknowledge that the longline boats could spark as much controversy as they do business.

The St. Vincent One is one of four longline fishing vessels to arrive in Ventura Harbor over the past three months. As many as a dozen more are expected in the near future.

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The longline vessels are operated by Hi-Seas Fish, a company owned jointly by Louisiana and Florida fishing outfits that intends to bring its highly efficient form of hook-and-line fishing to the Pacific.

Longline fishing entails dragging 40 miles of fishing line connected to about 800 hooks along the deep waters of the ocean for 12-hour stretches.

The hooks are baited and dropped several hundred miles off the coast by experienced fishermen who often endure several days of fierce winds and 30-foot swells just to find the right location.

When the lines are reeled in, the fishermen find not only the swordfish, tuna and dorado (commonly known as mahi-mahi), they also might come up with “incidental catch” or “bycatch” of undersized swordfish, inedible blue shark and marlin.

Because of this bycatch, and because of the efficiency of longline fishing, the practice has upset an odd coupling of fishing and environmentalist groups.

Even before Hi-Seas arrived in Ventura, local commercial fishermen, sport anglers and environmentalists had united in disapproval of its fishing technique, issuing a laundry list of complaints and fears about what it would do to Pacific fisheries.

So great was the concern about longline fishing, state lawmakers outlawed the technique in waters off the California coast.

But the new Ventura fleet fishes in international waters more than 200 miles away. Boats often travel as far as 1,000 miles to set their lines.

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In those unregulated waters, both Hawaiian and foreign vessels have been longline fishing with great success for several years.

The owners of Hi-Seas say they are simply giving the United States an opportunity to fish waters dominated by fishermen from other countries.

“This is the chance for American fishermen to compete with other nations on the high seas,” said co-owner Bill Craighead. “Every time the U.S. comes out with new regulations, the foreign fishermen jump up and down with joy. Until now, the Japanese and the Koreans have been fishing right in our own back yard and then selling the fish on our market. We want to take them on.”

In fact, about 80% of the fish consumed in the United States is caught by fishermen on foreign-flagged vessels, according to Bill Beebe, who reports on fishing for Western Outdoor News.

“This fishery is basically untapped by U.S. fishermen,” Beebe said. “Between the fishing constraints in the Gulf (of Mexico) and the East Coast and the depletion of the fisheries there, this area has become very attractive.”

Until now, a major reason American fishermen have not pursued the Pacific Ocean’s swordfish fishery is because the outings have so much potential for peril.

In nine years of operation in Florida, Craighead said he lost four boats.

“When we’re out there, the waves can get as high as 30 feet,” said Tuyen Nguyen, the 28-year-old captain of the St. Vincent One after a 26-day outing.

“When you’re at the top of the wave, you can see for miles, but when you’re at the bottom, all you can see is the wave in front of you and the one behind you. They’re like two giant walls.”

Nguyen said fierce winds and rain forced his crew of five into the boat’s cabin for three days. “We got tossed around in there, but we knew the weather would change eventually,” he said.

Ken Trinh, co-owner of Hi-Seas, said his 30 crew members are among the few fishermen willing to risk working the high seas.

“Most people would not take those risks,” Trinh said. “These guys work very hard for their families. It’s a difficult life.”

While the life is treacherous, the payoff can be quite large. The St. Vincent One’s catch from its October outing grossed $30,000, of which the fishermen get a percentage.

One tuna alone sold on the Japanese market for $1,000.

“The guys who fish with nets may bring in tons more fish, but they don’t get the kind of prices we do in the fresh-fish market,” Craighead said. “We are the high-end in quality.”

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Customers from around the world pay Hi-Seas an average of $4 to $6 a pound for the freshly caught swordfish and tuna, Craighead said. All of the fish caught by the St. Vincent One were in a market or on a dinner table within two days of the vessel’s return to Ventura, he said.

To allow for this, Trinh said major renovation to Ventura Harbor was necessary.

As part of its agreement with the Ventura Harbor District, Hi-Seas has leased the harbor’s ice-making facility and its fuel docks, as well as receiving priority for as many as 20 slips.

“Before they arrived, our facilities were really underutilized,” said Richard Parsons, general manager of the harbor. “Now we have their business, and because they have fixed up the facilities, we are likely to see even more commercial business at the harbor.”

But the harbor was not completely without commercial fisherman. Several shrimp, cod and swordfish boats have run for years out of Ventura.

The Ventura fishermen have been cautious in their reception of the new business, meeting on several occasions to discuss their fear that Hi-Seas would give its own fleet priority at the ice plant and fuel docks.

“We just want to make sure we’re treated fairly,” said Mario Bujas, a local rock cod fisherman. “We also want to make sure that when business gets bad, they don’t gear those boats up for rock cod. That would be a big problem.”

Trinh said that, in time, local fishermen will realize that those issues will not be problems.

“Once they see that we are not their competition, that we can help them with the ice and fuel, I think those fears will go away,” he said. “We want to be good neighbors.”

There are some groups, however, who have more serious concerns with how Hi-Seas plans to operate.

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The commercial fishermen who hunt swordfish one at a time with harpoons say they fear the longliners will deplete precious supplies of the highly migratory fish.

“The fishermen are concerned about the stocks of fish,” said Cathy Novak, who fishes out of Morro Bay for swordfish. “They don’t want to see the supply of fish decimated. It’s unfair to allow that to happen.”

Their concern, Novak said, is justified because of the longliners’ impact on swordfish fisheries in waters off the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. There are about 200 active longliners in those regions.

In those fisheries over the past 15 years, the size of the average swordfish has decreased from 115 pounds to 60 pounds, according to the Southeast branch of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“The Atlantic swordfish in particular is considered to be overfished,” said Rod Dalton, a fishery administrator for the service’s office in St. Petersburg, Fla. “We have been forced to regulate the longliners here,” he said.

California has no regulations for landing swordfish, according to officials with the state Department of Fish and Game.

At the Ventura dock where the crew of the St. Vincent One unloaded its catch, Fish and Game officials measured and weighed the fish caught by the longliners for their records but could not prohibit any of the catch from being landed.

The only fish they can prevent from being brought onshore are marlin.

Marlin are so popular with recreational anglers that several years ago the sport fishermen lobbied to prevent commercial fishermen from catching and selling them in California.

But, according to Fish and Game officials, it is impossible for the longliners to fish for swordfish and not catch some marlin.

“It would be unavoidable,” said Rick Klingbeil, a manager at the marine resources division of Fish and Game. “They’re going to catch some marlin, and every time they do, it gets the sport fishermen extremely upset.”

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A collection of fishermen in Southern California whose primary aim is to catch the large billfish have long been a vocal opponent of longline fishing. Until now they have fought against foreign longliners that fished out of Hawaii and Mexico.

“It’s been an ongoing battle to keep the Japanese longliners out of Mexican waters,” said Marty Morris, a recreational angler who frequently fishes in the waters off the Ventura County coast. “Now it is a potential problem here.”

“When these sports fishermen hear words like longline and gillnet, it raises the hair on the back of the neck,” Morris said. “It’s a very emotional issue.”

Both Trinh and Craighead said they had no interest in catching marlin, and when they were caught, the fishermen knew to release them.

“We can’t make any money off marlin,” Trinh said. “What would be the point?”

Regardless of their intentions, if longline fishermen become a fishing force in the Pacific Ocean as they have in the Atlantic, marine biologists in Southern California say there is no telling what the impact could be.

“As is the case with any kind of fishing, the more there is, the worse the damage on the fish population,” said Gary Davis, a marine biologist at Channel Islands National Park. “When someone comes along with a better mousetrap, they’re just going to drive the population to extinction more quickly.”

“We have always felt there was little we could do to manage the fisheries in the Pacific,” Klingbeil said. “But that was because California fishermen were only taking about 3% of the catch. All of the fishing was done by foreigners.”

Now, according to Beebe, other longline operations are following the lead of Hi-Seas.

“There are several outfits looking in San Pedro and San Diego to start up,” Beebe said.

That, argues Craighead, will mean good things for the Southern California economy.

“We’re bringing businesses and people into the economy. What we have done will benefit the harbor and the community.”

As for the impact it will have on California’s fisheries, Fish and Game officials said they would wait and see.

“If it continues to expand, there is certainly a great potential for depletion,” Klingbeil said. “Only time will tell.”