Embattled Black Seabass Are Facing a New Threat

They’re called gentle giants by scuba divers who have gotten to know them--up close and personally. They’re easily approachable and certainly gigantic, growing to 7 feet and 500-plus pounds.

Yet, as such amiable lugs, the giant seabass--commonly referred to as black seabass--around the Channel Islands are highly vulnerable, even though they’re protected by state law.

That became dramatically evident a few weeks ago, when Santa Catalina Island dive master Steve Maderas snapped a photo of a large seabass swimming around with a spear protruding from its side.

The photo was posted on the Web, generating an outcry in the diving community and leading to the offer of a $5,000 reward for the capture and conviction of the culprit.

“A guy can go out and get bit by a shark and it’s front-page news, but if a guy shoots one of these gentle giants, nobody cares. That’s why I offered the reward,” says Bob Meistrell, 73, owner of Dive ‘N’ Surf in Redondo Beach and a staunch conservationist. “I put up the money to get everybody’s attention at least. Maybe his friends will tell on him.”

That hasn’t happened yet, but Meistrell has received plenty of calls--”Mostly, they’re calling me a hero for doing this,” he says--and the matter has received a lot of attention.

Newspapers and at least one TV station have touched on the issue, accurately portraying black seabass as an embattled species that finally seems to be rallying as a result of protection afforded in 1982. Because of the publicity, Department of Fish and Game wardens in recent weeks have beefed up their presence around Catalina.

Black seabass are bottom dwellers that congregate in groups, making them easy targets for anglers and spear fishermen. They don’t reach sexual maturity until they’re 11 to 13 years old, weighing 60-70 pounds. They can live for more than 75 years. The flesh of the younger fish is delicate, but that of the older fish reportedly is tough and undesirable.

Nonetheless, the broad-tailed behemoths once were prized among island fishermen.

“I remember one party boat in Oxnard targeting these things exclusively at times, and getting 50 to 60 a year,” says Steve Crooke, a DFG biologist, adding that the moratorium was intended to spare black seabass from potential extinction.

The late Charles F. Holder, founder of the Avalon Tuna Club in the late 1800s, wrote of the attraction the big game fish held for him: “ . . . From the absolute quiet, the angler is hurled into a maelstrom of excitement. That unknown, unseen fish has headed out to sea for a deeper haunt where the long, snake-like kelp vines coil and writhe in the blue Kuro Shiwo [Kuroshiro current] as it sweeps down the island shores.”

Meistrell, who has been diving since he was a child, “when I used a garden hose attached to a vegetable-oil can to get air,” says he speared his last black seabass in 1956 at the Coronado Islands south of San Diego.

“It was the craziest thing we ever did,” he adds. “We were stupid when we were young.”

Crooke says the species’ recovery, based on anecdotal evidence such as more fish being hooked and released by sport fishermen, has been progressing “pretty well.” Black seabass received an additional boost with the banning of gill-nets from coastal and near-shore areas nine years ago. Nonetheless, the moratorium probably will remain in place for several more years, Crooke says.

At Catalina, the most popular of the Channel Islands for divers because of its proximity, the recovery has been particularly evident in the last few years and the seabass have become accustomed to humans.

In fact, the fish have become a tourist attraction in the Italian Gardens and Long Point areas on the mainland-facing side of the island.

“It started with one or two showing at Italian Gardens, and then over a period of time between May and November, we started seeing as many as a dozen in that area, including the larger ones: 400- and 500-pounders,” says Maderas, who co-owns Catalina Scuba Luv. “They’re very docile and when they’re around, we put divers eyeball-to-eyeball with them.”

Maderas adds, “It’s no big challenge to shoot one of these guys and that’s the disappointing part. It’s like raising a pet and then have someone come along and shoot your pet.”

The black seabass with the spear in its side has not been seen lately but reports that a diver has removed the spear from its side could not be confirmed. Other seabass have been seen bearing scars presumably caused by spears, and Maderas last week received an e-mailed photograph of another large seabass carrying a spear shaft and a length of cable around Anacapa Island off Oxnard.

“I guess there are people out there who just want to experience the thrill of having such a large animal at the end of their spear tip,” he says. “Just as there are fishermen who enjoy the thrill of having such a big fish at the end of their line.”

Food for Thought

The practice of shark feeding became more controversial after the recent publicized attack on an 8-year-old boy by a bull shark off Pensacola, Fla.

Feeding sharks--a ploy used by various dive outfits around the world to bring them into view--had nothing directly to do with the attack on Jessie Arbogast, which resulted in his arm being severed and reattached, but it put the spotlight on the issue of chumming up sharks to ensure sightings.

Environmentalists have been trying for years to stop shark feeding in Florida, claiming it alters the predators’ behavior and migration patterns. But the dive industry has countered that there is no conclusive evidence of that.

In May, a state panel refused to ban the practice, instead asking that the industry develop a responsible set of voluntary guidelines.

In an article this week in Cyber Diver, an online magazine, Florida marine biologist William Alevizon lashed out against shark feeding, saying, “It’s bad enough that Florida’s coasts are home to large numbers of dangerous sharks, but to deliberately go out and teach these animals to associate humans with food and then turn them loose on an unsuspecting public is just plain stupid.”

While seeing sharks ranks high on the list of many divers, not all like the idea of feeding them. In fact, in an ongoing Cyber Diver poll, through Wednesday, 3,070 divers said they opposed shark feeding while 661 were in favor of it.

Fitting the Bill

Irvine angler Joe Grant is credited with the first marlin catch of the Southern California season: a 122-pounder caught Wednesday off the east end of Catalina and weighed at Avalon.

Grant, a member of the Balboa Angling Club, was fishing with his wife, Ellen, aboard their boat. The marlin struck a green-and-yellow lure.

Albacore Score

With the best fishing still in U.S. waters, most of San Diego’s one- and two-day boats are not even carrying Mexican permits.

“The last couple of days, we’ve been fishing up there [with or near the L.A. and Orange County boats] for the good-quality stuff; the fish are averaging 20 to 30 pounds,” says Tommy Scherl, skipper of the Prowler. “The scores are 30-75 per boat, with some much higher.”

One of the week’s top counts, 106 albacore for 15 people, was posted Wednesday by the Conquest out of Fisherman’s Landing.

Lost and Found

A crew member aboard the Swedish yacht AlphaGraphics is fortunate to be alive after being washed overboard Tuesday in high seas off Spain during the third leg of the EDS Atlantic Challenge.

Asia Pajkowska was rescued after 20 harrowing minutes in the water by skipper Helena Darvelid and her crew, who are being praised for such precise seamanship during a rescue in 35-knot winds.

“Eventually we got a line to her and she held on for dear life,” Darvelid said. “It took four of us to drag Asia back onto the boat and she was so exhausted she just lay there, while we were just so happy and relieved to have her back on board and our crew of five intact.”

Pajkowska emerged “bruised, battered and shaken up” but otherwise OK, Darvelid added.

The third leg of the race started Saturday in Portsmouth, England, and ends in Baltimore. The fourth, to Boston, starts Aug. 5 and the final leg returns to the race’s starting point in St. Malo, France, where the first yachts are expected to finish between Aug. 19-22. The race Web site is https://www.edsatlanticchallenge.com.

Down Year of Ducks

Breeding-duck populations declined for the second consecutive year, largely because of dry conditions in western Canada and the northwestern United States. Aerial surveys conducted during the spring by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service counted 36.1 million birds. That’s down from 41.8 million the previous year and from a record 43.8 million in 1999.

“After five years of steady increases leading up to the record 1999 season, most duck populations remain healthy but have begun to fall back in line with historic averages,” USFWS director Marshall Jones said in a news release. “A significant factor contributing to the recent stability is the progress we’ve made in stemming the rate of wetland loss and restoring and enhancing wetlands.”