SEAL BEACH : City Hopes Fishing Derby Will Take Some of the Sting Out of Summer

After this summer’s spate of stingray attacks, city Parks and Recreation Director Andy Seymour has found a way to fight back.

Seymour is planning a Stingray Fishing Derby to reduce growing numbers of the barb-tailed bottom fish, an end-run of sorts around state Department of Fish and Game prohibitions against netting stingrays.

“We’ve got to at least make an effort to solve this problem in a fashion that does not require special permission from the state,” Seymour said.

There have been more than 200 attacks this summer in Seal Beach by stingrays attracted to the area by the warmer waters near the San Gabriel River mouth, according to Seymour.

The stingrays also like to feed on debris from the river.

Based on the numbers of stingrays netted in the area about 30 years ago, Seymour estimates there could be several thousand in local waters. And they stay put.

Seymour was lifeguard captain in Seal Beach during the early 1960s when a UCLA research team tagged a number of the stingrays. “They concluded that the stingray spends its lifetime within 100 feet of where it was born,” Seymour said.

Seymour hopes the proposed Stingray Fishing Derby, tentatively planned for late October, will demonstrate to state officials that the city has tried all options.

State Fish and Game officials have prohibited the netting of stingrays in local waters for more than two decades, due to concerns about game fish also caught and disruption of the coastal ecological balance.

“If we don’t take out at least 200 to 300 stingrays, then we’ll need to go to the Fish and Game Commission to get permission to use a seining net,” Seymour said.

“But we have to try this first before we make a plea for special treatment.”