A once-thriving industry awaits a blast of fresh air

The fishing isn’t as good as it used to be for the commercial fishermen working the waters off Southern California.

Their landings of squid are barely more than a quarter of what they were in 2000. Seasonal quotas on other seafood are so low that they can be reached in as little as a week.

Still, the most problematic catch for what’s left of a once-flourishing fleet is sometimes encountered on land.

The fishermen’s hauls -- mainly squid, sardines and mackerel -- are bound for Asia. But first they must be flash-frozen, and freezer space is in short supply, forcing some fishermen to roam as far inland as downtown Los Angeles in search of it.

“You come in with a couple of hundred tons of fish and then you have to beg other companies for space to freeze it,” said Ron Misetich, a 69-year-old retired fisherman who helps out around his son-in-law’s business, Western Fish Co. on Terminal Island.

“You’re always worried about not having enough,” Misetich said. “And when the squid fishing is hot, you want your boats out every day. You don’t want them waiting around.”

Within the next year or so, however, the local fishing industry might have one less worry. The Port of Los Angeles plans to build a 30,000-square-foot flash freezer on an empty lot near Tuna and Cannery, streets named in an era when the location was home to the largest commercial fishing fleet in the nation.

Misetich, who can trace his family’s fishing heritage back three generations in the U.S. -- and before that to the waters off the Croatian island of Brac -- is thrilled with the idea. Small wonder: The freezer, when built, would be almost next door to his son-in-law’s business.

“That freezer would be a big deal,” Misetich said. “It would save us money and time. We wouldn’t have transport costs. And in an economy like this, it would mean a few more local jobs running it too.”

The idea has been pushed by Geraldine Knatz, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, who sees the freezer as a way to help preserve and strengthen what’s left of the industry. With cargo revenues tenuous amid the global economic downturn, Knatz also sees it as a way to boost port income.

“This will be the first time that we have made a commitment to the commercial fishing industry in decades. This blast freezer will be totally devoted to the fish-processing facilities here at the port,” she said.

When port officials looked at local fish companies, Knatz said, they found that only one, Tri-Marine, had its own flash freezer.

“The rest had to take their fish somewhere else,” she said.

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners has expressed support for the plan, which would cost about $5.3 million. The board would have to come up with $1.1 million for the freezer’s construction. About $4.2 million would come from a grant that would have to be approved by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Port officials say they hope the grant will be approved as early as autumn.

About 1,100 commercial fishermen work locally; at the industry’s peak in the 1930s, that figure was in the tens of thousands. Those in the trade say the business has become increasingly difficult, with short seasons, tough quotas and restrictions on where they can fish. Worst of all, they say, their catches have declined considerably.

In 2000, for instance, the squid haul off Southern California totaled nearly 99 million pounds, according to the California Department of Fish and Game. By 2007, the latest year for which full statistics are available, it had fallen to less than 30 million pounds.

The Pacific mackerel catch went from about 47.7 million pounds to about 10.7 million pounds in the same period.

It’s that dwindling bounty along with the sense that the local ports are primarily concerned with making room for more cargo that concerns fishermen like Nick Jurlin Jr.

Freezer space isn’t a problem for him. When his boat, the 53-year-old Eileen, is filled with fish, he has an arrangement to use Tri-Marine’s freezer.

On a recent day, with the Eileen tied up behind Tri-Marine for a major overhaul, Jurlin talked about how commercial fishing supports more than just those who go out and catch the fish.

Aerial spotters are paid to fly back and forth across the sea, looking for large schools of fish and directing the boats to them.

A local shipyard is being paid to do some of the overhaul work on his boat, as is a local mechanic who’s working on the engine.

So even though he probably won’t need to use the blast freezer the port hopes to build, Jurlin sees it as an important sign that this generation need not be the last to make a living off the sea.

Jurlin’s grandmothers worked in San Pedro fish canneries. His father and grandfather were fishermen. Jurlin’s son-in-law is the latest generation involved.

“It would be heartbreaking to see this all go away,” Jurlin said.

“To hear that a new fishing facility could be coming in -- that’s important. It kind of says, ‘You guys have a future here.’ ”

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ron.white@latimes.com