A Reel Adventure
Brisk winds, sunny skies and calm waters made for perfect weather for sea lions, sharks and a three-hour fishing tour.
As a result, more than 100 kindergarten through sixth-grade students from Napa Street Elementary School in Northridge and Canoga Park Elementary School learned lessons one afternoon this week about the ancient occupation of fishing.
Volunteers from 976-TUNA, a Torrance-based saltwater fishing organization, took several boatloads of schoolchildren into Long Beach Harbor, where the students saw how a world-class port operates, fished, observed various forms of marine life and learned about job opportunities on the water.
“I can’t describe the feeling I get inside when I see how excited these young people get when they catch their first fish,” said Ed White, vice president of 976-TUNA.
The blue and white sport fishing boat sailed under the Gerald Desmond Bridge and past a harbor buoy occupied by sea gulls, pelicans and Andre, a sleepy sea lion who has become a popular Long Beach Harbor resident.
Once safely in the Outer Harbor, volunteers were hard-pressed passing out bait and keeping fishing lines untangled as students reeled in fish after fish.
“Maybe we should hire these guys as commercial fishermen,” one volunteer joked.
Green and black mackerels were common, but the catch of the day was a 2-foot baby shark pulled in by Sergio Najera, a 10-year-old fifth-grader from Canoga Park School.
“I was a little scared, because I didn’t know what I had,” said Sergio, who had never caught a fish before. “But I had fun catching it. Maybe I can fish for a living.”
After everyone had a chance to see the shark swimming around in a holding tank, it was released back into the sea.
Tuesday’s fishing expedition was sponsored by Long Beach Sportsfishing and LA’s BEST, an after-school education and recreation program that serves 5,000 students at 24 elementary schools throughout the city in neighborhoods identified as vulnerable to gangs, drugs and crime.
“Many of these kids have never gone fishing or been on the water before,” said Francine Harcum, LA’s BEST program administrator and science coordinator. “We started this program in 1995 with 100 kids. Now we’ve had 800 participate this year.”
With increasing troubles facing children growing up today, Harcum said, fishing teaches young people patience and cooperation.
For Ed White, who has fished off the Southern California coast for 62 years, the activity is much more basic.
“The only world these kids know could be six square blocks,” White said. “By showing them a different way of life, maybe they won’t be tempted to go down the wrong path.
“I tell my friends, when I see these kids fishing, there’s nothing pretentious about what they’re doing,” he said. “You can have the fancy boat and the $300 rods and reels, but this is what it’s all about.”