A Grand Day in Burton Chace Park
Author:
Paul Simon Paul Simon
Betty Lou Markham, age nine, was intent on watching fish being netted from the bottom of a tank, a few at a time. She heard a number called out and then repeated by another person who was holding a clicker, and she could see him punch the clicker. Then she saw the fish being returned to the other end of the tank. On the far side of the deck surrounding the tank a man who seemed to be in charge was explaining what she was witnessing. It was the meticulous counting of juvenile white seabass before they were pushed out into the Marina, where they would join the natural seabass fishery that inhabits the coves and lagoons of Santa Monica Bay. Pushed out because they are very content where they have been fed five times a day for seven months.
Releasing seabass is a semiannual process that has resulted in the Marina del Rey Ocean Resources Enhancement Program releasing over 72,000 juvenile white seabass into Santa Monica Bay since 1995, with the aim of restoring the natural seabass fishery. Betty Lou was one of forty children who observed the counting and then a larger group that witnessed the actual release. The audience was impressed by the solemnity of the proceedings, accompanied by Elgar's Graduation March, and felicitations to the fish for their new adventure.
Just like high-school graduation!
Marina del Rey Anglers traditionally releases two batches of white seabass from their grow-out pens to help celebrate L.A. County's "Discover The Marina Day" which occurred on Sunday, October 9. The day was a rousing success for the Anglers with an audience of over 300 children and adults touring the grow-out pens and observing the counting and release.of 2,824 seabass. Marina del Rey Anglers is a local fishing and community service club which operates one of sixteen grow-out facilities established in harbors from San Diego to Santa Barbara and Catalina Island. Ten years ago a group of conservation-minded public figures, led by Milton Shedd, the founder of Sea World, decided to take action to ameliorate the serious depletion of the white seabass fishery that had been caused by poorly controlled commercial fishermen. That was the birth of the Ocean Resources Enhancement Program which, as of October, 2004, has released over one million white seabass off the shores of Southern California. With funds from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Plant, as mitigation for the vast area of wetlands it destroyed, a high-tech hatchery was built in Carlsbad, California. Broodstock was collected by interested recreational fishermen and the cycle of breeding, rearing, growing-out and releasing into the ocean began.
Every fish produced by the hatchery carries an internal, microscopic tag in its cheek. A monitoring system traces the movements of tagged juvenile fish and recreational and commercial fishermen are encouraged to save the heads of all adult seabass they catch. Tags retrieved by the hatchery are decoded and reveal the dates of spawning, transfer to grow-out facilities, the average size of the batch with which it was released, when and where it was caught, and its approximate size when caught. The retrieval system has verified the success of the program as it traces the migration of released fish to the offshore islands and up and down the coast of Southern California. Tagged fish weighing more than 30 pounds are now being caught by recreational and commercial fishermen.
After the release, Betty Lou was one of 67 children who were taught how to fish from a pier by mentors from Marina del Rey Anglers. Rods, reels, and bait were provided by the Anglers at the Burton Chace Park Fishing Pier. Parents and grand-parents were welcomed on the Pier and enjoyed watching as much as the children enjoyed fishing.
"Discover The Marina Day" was eminently successful with hundreds of children enjoying the inflatable rides provided by the County, and hundreds of adults delighting in the wares of booths dispensing everything from on-the-spot massages to home-made chili.
For more information about Marina del Rey Anglers or the Ocean Resources Enhancement Program please contact Paul Simon at 310/821-7262 or psicon@comcast.net .
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