DANA POINT / SAN CLEMENTE : It’s No Fish Tale; 900 White Bass Really Got Away

It wasn’t that long ago, Merril Fahy recalls, that the waters off San Clemente and Dana Point were so full of white sea bass that people came from all over the world to catch the popular eating fish.

“You could catch them off the pier, there were so many of them,” said Fahy, 73, who has lived in San Clemente for 28 years.

After 20 years of overfishing and overdevelopment along the coast, however, the fish had nearly become a relic of the past. Once estimated to number about 1 million in local waters, they have dwindled to 100,000, said Steve Crooke, senior marine biologist with the State Department of Fish and Game.

Conservationists hope that the South County waters will soon be teeming again with the silvery saltwater species.

More than 900 nine-inch white sea bass, raised during the past eight months by the Dana Point Fisheries Enhancement Program, were released Tuesday off the coast of San Clemente, their natural habitat. Within five years, the fish will reach 28 inches, the size at which they can be caught legally.

The sea bass release was part of the Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program sponsored by the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute and the California Department of Fish and Game. It is part of a much broader plan to restock the coastal waters of Southern California with depleted species.

Dana Point is the seventh location for the sea bass program, which has released about 40,000 white sea bass in Southern California this year. Eventually, the program will release 300,000 a year, Crooke said.

For the past eight months, through winter storms and red tides, dozens of volunteers including Fahy fed 1,050 1 1/2-inch sea bass fingerlings in net pens at the harbor. “It was a labor of love,” said Gene Corona, vice president for operations of the hatchery program.

Only about 150 of the sea bass died, making Dana Point’s growing pens among the most successful of the program, Corona said. Next month, Dana Point will receive 3,000 more fingerlings to nurture and eventually release into the ocean.

Meanwhile, the newly released sea bass will face predators, including sea lions, other fish and unwitting fishermen. “The next two weeks will be a nightmare for them,” said Mark Drawbridge, program manager for Hubbs.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t recognize juvenile sea bass. They’re similar to other fish found locally, so you have to give it a second look,” Drawbridge said.

They are distinguished by a thin ridgeline that runs under the belly, as well as two dorsal fins, he said.

“The stocking aspect isn’t a cure-all,” Drawbridge said. “It has to be in combination with regulatory measures if it’s going to work.”