The Magazine of the Catalina Marine Society
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OceanBights The Magazine of the Catalina Marine Society Winter 2014 Volume 5, Number 2 Contents This Issue 2 El Nino Predictor, Please! 2 Return of the Giant Sea Bass 3 Society News 7 The Turtles are Coming 8 Reducing loss of Marine Fauna 9 Whither the Sea Stars 16 Crowd-Sourcing and CCD Urchin Counts 17 New CMS Lecture 21 Upcoming Meetings 21 Urchins by Species for over 2 Decades 22 Urchins by Depth for over 2 Decades 23 Membership Application Backcover OceanBights _________________________________________________________________________________________ This Issue Ocean Defenders Alliance, where individuals go to heroic There was no planned lengths to save our macro ma- theme to this issue of OceanBights rine fauna. for why would we break tradi- tion? But two themes devel- Catalina Marine Society oped. First is local sightings of El Nino Predictor, 15954 Leadwell St two endangered species; green Van Nuys, CA 91406 turtles and giant black seabass Please! www.catalinamarinesociety.org (Mary Ann Wilson’s article). What this country needs The first time I saw a giant is a good El Nino predictor. I Publication Committee black sea bass (I was a pre-teen) was prompted to write this dur- Michael Doran it was in the bed of my neigh- Karen Norris ing a recent hellacious rain bor’s truck. And, he needed a Craig Gelpi storm, a symptom of El Nino. truck to transport it. I’ve also However, starting in the sum- had interesting encounters with Interim Editor mer and continuing into the fall, them in Malibu, where one stole Craig Gelpi the predictions for El Nino have my supper. Mary Ann describes become weaker, even tepid the fisheries history, natural his- OceanBights is published by the though the water temperature at tory and current research on Catalina Marine Society. It is Santa Catalina Island has been these behemoths at Santa Cata- distributed free of charge to unusually warm: a harbinger of those interested in the Society’s lina Island. an El Nino. (See the last issue activities. The Society holds cop- Sightings of sea turtles of OceanBights for a winter- yright to all articles within and are also becoming more com- they cannot be reproduced with- mon and we have an article on a summer temperature compari- out the written permission of the surprisingly local population, son at the island.) Society. Strong El Ninos have and how, you, too, can go see them. dramatic effect on our phyto- The Catalina Marine Society is a plankton, kelp, fisheries and nonprofit membership corpora- The second theme is the marine mammal populations. tion founded in 2009 in Los An- very warm water we have expe- geles to marshal volunteer re- rienced this summer and fall. It Indeed, time series of popula- sources to study the marine envi- may influence turtles, kelp and tion numbers are strong indica- ronment of Santa Catalina Island sea stars, and if it portends a tors of El Nino years with most and the Southern California large El Nino, every animal will species exhibiting a steep de- Bight. cline during and after the time probably be affected. This topic is touched on in a tribute to the of warm water. If we cannot Submissions. The magazine may predict an El Nino, we cannot publish submitted articles that Catalina Conservancy Divers predict and manage these re- pertain to our mission state- and their efforts to measure ma- ment. Contact the e-mail address rine species at the island. sources. To promote accurate below for more information. Finally, we introduce predictions, I suggest that the Cassandra Heredia who has government gives a prize Letters to the editor should be sent via e-mail to the address written her first article for for development of an ac- below. OceanBights. She describes the curate El Nino predictor. [email protected] plight of our fisheries and ef- Let’s call it the “EL” forts to sustain them, especially prize. ©Catalina Marine Society the works and dedication of the 2 OceanBights _________________________________________________________________________________________ Return of the Giant Sea In 1981, the California Soup fin sharks became scarce Bass, King of the Kelp State Legislature banned com- in the early 1940s, while leop- mercial and recreational fishing ard sharks declined in the mid- Forest for giant sea bass, but still al- 1980s. In a drastic move to save lowed commercial fishermen to the fish, gill nets were banned Mary Ann Wilson retain and sell two fish per trip as of 1994 from within three miles of southern California's Back in April 2011, my mainland. This regulation sig- friend and I were diving off Ca- naled a turning point for fish sino Point on Santa Catalina populations. In a presentation Island in chilly waters when we given this past October, Dr. looked up and saw four large Larry Allen, biology department black fish. They were about chair at CSUN, said the Propo- four to five feet long, cruising sition 132 ban on gill nets is slowly in around 20 feet of wa- what turned the tide for many ter at the edge of the kelp. To commercially fished species. my friend they looked like un- “We’ve seen a response of hali- derwater cows; to me they but, a response of giant sea bass seemed more like mellow hip- that we’ve published, a re- pies on floating motorcycles. sponse of leopard sharks and Whatever they were, I was in Mary Ann Wilson soup fin sharks and a variety of awe of them. We were told they other large elasmobranchs were giant sea bass (GSB), Ste- if caught incidentally in a gill which seem to have gotten reolepis gigas, which return to net or trammel net. This law some relief from commercial the waters off Catalina Island also limited the amount of giant fishing.” every summer, and we were the sea bass that could be taken in first to see them that year. Mexican waters and landed in These apex predators California. The law was amend- have had a rough time, being ed in 1988, reducing the inci- nearly fished to extinction until dental take to one fish in Cali- saved by legislation. Commer- fornia waters. cial fishing of giant sea bass After the moratorium began in Southern California was enacted in 1981, catches in1870 when fish were taken decreased substantially. From with hand lines. But as the 1983 to 1992, incidental catches take declined between remained low, ranging from 1.7 1915 and 1920, fishermen to 5.9 tonnes. switched to gill nets, tem- But the moratorium porarily increasing catch. didn’t prohibit fishing over gi- Commercial landings peaked in ant sea bass habitats where they 1932 at 115 tonnes but then de- could be caught incidentally. creased rapidly. By 1935 most Entangled giant sea bass that commercial fishing had shifted would exceed the catch limit if to Mexico. And by 1980 com- landed were discarded at sea or mercial landings in California distributed among fishing boats. waters had declined to 5 tonnes. Other fish have also suf- fered from nets and overfishing. June 1906 world record 428 lbs. Library of Congress 3 OceanBights _________________________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Allen worked for 20 2004. That’s when Allen decid- ing the kelp beds in southern years before seeing a juvenile ed it was time to begin a study California, they also consume giant sea bass in 1993. His first of giant sea bass. But his article Pacific mackerel, ocean white- observation: entitled “The decline and recov- fish, midshipmen, stingrays, “Last year while trawling in ery of four predatory fishes white croakers, small sharks, Newport Bay on a sampling from the Southern California crabs, and mantis shrimp. trip for Cal Fish and Bight” was turned down by Sci- Historically, giant Game's BENES program ence, Nature and PNAS, be- sea bass were distributed targeting local sport fishes, cause “there was one reviewer from Humboldt Bay to something memorable hap- that simply didn’t believe our pened...Almost as soon as data. He thought we made it southern Baja California the trawl had hit the deck, up,” Allen said. It was finally and the Sea of Cortez with my chief research assistant, published 2008 in Marine Biol- populations concentrated south Motz (Tom Grothues), be- ogy. of Point Conception in shallow gan yelling something rocky reefs. According to Al- about a black sea bass. I len, the current primary was on the back deck in range is Pt. Conception an instant grumbling in south to about Punta Abreo- disbelief. I had never seen jos, Baja Mexico and in the or heard of a black (or northern Gulf of California now, more properly, a gi- (north of the Midriff Is- ant) sea bass being taken lands). “We think they occur from inside Newport Bay off the coastline of southern in all of my 20 years of Baja California, but if they experience there. But, occur there, they are proba- sure enough, there it was. bly in deep water — say 200 An absolutely gorgeous to 400 feet,” Allen said. little fish about 6 inches “We also think they or their long. It was reddish- larvae migrate around the tip bronze in color with jet- of Baja joining the popula- black circular spots and Juvenile GSB tions on either side of the huge black fins…From Photo thanks to Phil Garner peninsula, based on anecdo- the likes of this tiny, ele- tal and personal observa- gant fish -- the largest, the Giant sea bass start life tions as well as genetic da- eldest, and most magnificent as brightly colored orange juve- ta.” of our nearshore fish species niles with large black spots, and Very little is known will emerge.” (Western Out- ride the sand riffles in shallow about giant sea bass, but their Outdoors News, 1993) water.