California’s Only Halibut Hatchery Fights to Survive

It hasn’t been a good year for the state’s only halibut hatchery, located a block from the ocean in Redondo Beach.

First, Big Mama, its celebrity 50-pound halibut, was snatched from her tank and barbecued at a private party in March.

Then its funding ran out. Now, the private, nonprofit hatchery, which for 15 years has produced halibut for researchers and to restock Santa Monica Bay, is on the verge of collapse.

The attack on Big Mama, the mascot and once highly productive breeder fish, brought a swell of publicity and sympathy for the hatchery. But that was not enough to stem the organization’s growing financial troubles. With no more funds for salaries, the hatchery director this fall took a job teaching seventh-grade biology at a nearby school, although he still volunteers to help the fish.

Mama’s full-size offspring still swim in the four concrete tanks, and thousands of younger, silver-dollar-sized fish spawned by her and others splash in special water-filled trays as they grow to maturity. But some supporters fear that few new fish will survive the upcoming spawning season unless new grants are found to pay salaries and maintain the facility.

Some scientists say the hatchery’s closing would be no great loss because California halibut, unlike their Atlantic cousins, are not endangered.

But others say the state is on the verge of losing an important research tool that could help develop new ways to provide food to the world’s growing population. They also believe it is unwise to wait until halibut become endangered.

“When do you start protecting something? Do you start protecting them when [the fish] are fine, or do you wait until they’re beyond hope? If they’re doing fine, but their numbers are lower, it’s a perfect time,” said Giancarlo Cetrulo, director of the Science, Education and Adventure Laboratory, or SEA Lab. That youth-oriented marine study center houses the independent hatchery and has been trying to help it recently.

Since the funding ran out, hatchery Director Jim Rounds has continued to check in when he can on the 20-foot-wide concrete tanks in the small patio of what was once a storage facility for a Southern California Edison power plant.

Two other volunteers feed the fish and check on the baby halibut. In the best of conditions, many don’t make it; researchers consider a 5% survival rate good.

Cetrulo estimates that the hatchery needs about $200,000 a year to purchase materials and food and to pay a technical advisor. He would like to see students from inner-city schools receive academic credit for the daily care of the baby and juvenile fish. He plans to apply for state funds, for the protection of coastal waters, to foot the bill.

He says that, under the right guidance, the hatchery could grow fish, not only to repopulate Santa Monica Bay, but to sell to local restaurants. Profits from restaurant sales could end up covering the hatchery’s operating costs, he said.

The hatchery opened in 1985 under a California Department of Fish and Game program. The goal was to see whether Pacific halibut and white sea bass, both popular sport and commercial fish, could be raised in captivity to repopulate the ocean stock.

In addition to being a popular choice for dinner, halibut are known for their wandering eyes. As with other flatfish, as a halibut grows, one eye migrates to the top of its head so it can see with both eyes as it lies flat on the ocean floor, waiting for unsuspecting prey.

“There’s a mystique to catching a halibut,” said Fish and Game senior marine biologist Steve Crooke. “They’re difficult to catch, and they taste great.”

But delicate white sea bass are considered more at risk; so in 1990 the state Fish and Game program decided to focus its money on them.

For a while the halibut program survived on money from Southern California Edison as part of an environmental mitigation settlement for the utility’s effects on marine habitat. But that money and small private grants ended. Some critics complain that the hatchery never planned well and did not try hard enough to find long-term alternative funding sources.

At the height of the money crisis, the infamous break-in occurred. Big Mama and 17 breeding-age halibut were speared and stolen from their tanks.

Big Mama was past her breeding age. But the theft and killing of her meant the end of one of the SEA Lab’s best teaching tools, said Anne Savage of the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, which funds the SEA Lab. “She was a big attraction for us to teach about the marine environment. The kids really loved her,” Savage said.

Manhattan Beach resident Taras Poznik, 24, was convicted of the theft and admitted cooking and serving Big Mama at a party.

Poznik, who said he was drunk when he took Big Mama and didn’t know her importance, was sentenced to six months in jail and six months in an alcohol treatment facility.

Fish and Game official Crooke agrees that it would be nice to keep the halibut hatchery operating in case anything drastic happens to the wild stock, but he says there just isn’t enough state money to go around. Crooke also believes that current state regulations ensure that the fish will not be harvested excessively.

Other scientists disagree. According to Linda Kling, associate professor at the University of Maine, which is launching an Atlantic halibut hatchery, it would be a mistake to close the Redondo Beach facility now because open water fish farming, or aquaculture, is just taking off in the United States and needs research support.

“It would be a shame to jump ship now, because I think it’s an area that’s on the verge of being successful,” she said.

Kling added that the Redondo Beach hatchery’s breeding-age fish are invaluable because they can provide eggs to other institutions.

Katherine Dickson, a biology professor at Cal State Fullerton who heads a research team studying halibut, agrees. Her team has used eggs and fish from the hatchery for the last few years.

“This year we were able to get most of the fish we needed on an emergency basis,” she said, but added, “If we need more, we are going to be in trouble.”