Save the Whales? Whales Save the Season for Local Landings

Fishing stinks. So does business, at the local landings, anyway. Happens every year at this time, when the water gets cold and the air doesn’t get much warmer. When the holidays take precedent over everything.

But there is optimism in the landing offices because the whales are coming to save the season. That, too, happens every year, as the California gray whales plod southward from the Bering Sea to the Baja lagoons, where they bring new whales into the world and nurse them for a few months before heading home.

So predictable is this migration, sportfishing landings up and down the coast set their schedules by it. Some will begin running whale-watching trips the day after Christmas, although the whales won’t show in earnest for another month or so.

And when they do, who needs the fish?

“It’s a big boost . . . for us,” said Jim Neubauer, spokesman for 22nd St. Landing in San Pedro. “Fishing is pretty slow, and not many people want to go fishing this time of year, anyway.”

For skippers and crews fortunate enough to draw the whale crowd, this means no more messing with scaly anchovies, or blood and guts that stick like plaster to their decks and rails.

On that note, a few whale tidbits to start the season:

--Gray whales, which grow to about 45 feet and weigh as much as 45 tons, were not always the beloved creatures they are today. They once were hunted to near extinction.

Whalers referred to them as “devil fish” because, after harpooning a calf, the mother would charge the whalers’ boats. The whalers then would try to kill the mother as well.

They got good enough at it that there were very few whales left by the turn of the century. Processing plants closed, and eventually the Mexican government clued in and closed the lagoons to whalers.

--Full protection was granted gray whales by the League of Nations in 1937, and by the International Whaling Commission in 1946. The whales responded by multiplying back up to nearly their pre-whaling levels--about 17,000. They were removed from the list of endangered species in 1994.

--The best time to go whale-watching? Clyde Lambert of Redondo Beach, a volunteer for the whale-watch census project at the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, said peak southbound traffic usually occurs during the second week of January. Peak northbound traffic occurs during the first week of March.

Lambert said 23 whales already have been spotted by volunteers at the center. Three passed by Tuesday and two more had been seen as of 2:30 p.m. Wednesday.

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Realizing these are not the best of times to be fishing, or hunting, hiking or climbing, some are capitalizing by bringing the great outdoors indoors.

The first outdoor show of the season--the Great Western Sports, RV and Travel Show at the Anaheim Convention Center--begins a nine-day run Dec. 28.

The annual event features seminars by several noted anglers--among them Carol Martens, the only professional female bass angler on the West Coast--and dozens of fishing-related exhibits, as well as representatives of rafting and kayak centers and RV clubs.

But this year’s show will be heavily geared to hunters. Outfitters from around the world will be on hand to offer safaris and hunts involving everything from elk to elephants.

Olympic skeet shooting gold medalist Kimberly Rhode will be there opening day. Show features include a casting pond, an archery range and an NRA-sponsored shooting area.

Tickets are $7.50 for adults, $5 for seniors Monday through Thursday only, $3 for children 8-14. Accompanied children under 8 are admitted free.

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Nature tip: Bald eagles have arrived at the Silverwood Lake Recreation Area, and park officials are conducting eagle walks and talks each Saturday and Sunday through March 16, when the birds will begin heading back to the Yellowstone area. The tours are from 9 a.m. to noon. The park is also requesting volunteers to conduct eagle counts, the first of which will take place Saturday at 8 a.m. Details: (619) 389-2303.

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Hot bite: The season is barely under way at the home of the world’s biggest yellowfin tuna, a.k.a. the Revillagigedo Islands south of Baja, and already the fishing is great. Bill Wirth of Bonsall, Calif., boated the most plump so far, a 332-pounder, after an hourlong fight aboard Red Rooster III at Clarion Island.

Another weighed in at just under 300 pounds. W.A. Roecker of the San Diego Sportfishing Council tells that story:

“Tim Turis, Navy fighter jock from Oak Harbor, Wash., and an Excel long-range regular, got the big one, which weighed 289.9 pounds. Tim shot down his lunker with a chunk bait on 100-pound Big Game line, with a 200-pound Jin Kai leader. He used an 80-S reel and a cut-down, 4-foot 11-inch Calstar Boomer rod to whip the giant, which required a skiff ride and 1 hour 40 minutes to bring to gaff.”