Return of the Giant Sea Bass

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 ______Return of the Giant Sea In 1981, the California Other fish have also Bass, King of the Kelp State Legislature banned suffered from nets and commercial and recreational overfishing. Soup fin sharks Forest fishing for giant sea bass, but became scarce in the early still allowed commercial 1940s, while leopard sharks Mary Ann Wilson fishermen to retain and sell two declined in the mid-1980s. In a drastic move to save the fish, Back in April 2011, my gill nets were banned as of 1994 friend and I were diving off from within three miles of Casino Point on Santa Catalina southern California's mainland. Island in chilly waters when we This regulation signaled a looked up and saw four large turning point for fish black fish. They were about populations. In a presentation four to five feet long, cruising given this past October, Dr. slowly in around 20 feet of Larry Allen, biology department water at the edge of the kelp. To chair at CSUN, said the my friend they looked like Proposition 132 ban on gill nets underwater cows; to me they is what turned the tide for many seemed more like mellow commercially fished species. hippies on floating motorcycles. “We’ve seen a response of Whatever they were, I was in Mary Ann Wilson halibut, a response of giant sea awe of them. We were told they bass that we’ve published, a were giant sea bass (GSB), fish per trip if caught response of leopard sharks and Stereolepis gigas, which return incidentally in a gill net or soup fin sharks and a variety of to the waters off Catalina Island trammel net. This law also other large elasmobranchs every summer, and we were the limited the amount of giant sea first to see them that year. bass that could be taken in These apex predators Mexican waters and landed in have had a rough time, being California. The law was nearly fished to extinction until amended in 1988, reducing the saved by legislation. incidental take to one fish in Commercial fishing of giant sea California waters. bass began in Southern After the moratorium California in1870 when fish was enacted in 1981, catches were taken with hand lines. But decreased substantially. From as the take declined between 1983 to 1992, incidental catches 1915 and 1920, fishermen remained low, ranging from 1.7 switched to gill nets, to 5.9 tonnes. temporarily increasing catch. But the moratorium Commercial landings peaked in didn’t prohibit fishing over 1932 at 115 tonnes but then giant sea bass habitats where decreased rapidly. By 1935 they could be caught most commercial fishing had incidentally. Entangled giant shifted to Mexico. And by 1980 sea bass that would exceed the commercial landings in catch limit if landed were California waters had declined discarded at sea or distributed to 5 tonnes. among fishing boats. June 1906 world record 428 lbs. Library of Congress 3

OceanBights ______which seem to have gotten Vol. 3 No 1) didn’t report any they are more than capable of some relief from commercial along Palos Verdes Point from sucking out of their crevices fishing.” 1974 to 2001. The giants finally with their large, gaping mouths. Dr. Allen worked for 20 were seen there from 2002– As the only “megacarnivore” years before seeing a juvenile 2004. That’s when Allen inhabiting the kelp beds in giant sea bass in 1993. His first decided it was time to begin a southern California, they also observation: study of giant sea bass. But his consume Pacific mackerel, “Last year while trawling in article entitled “The decline and ocean whitefish, midshipmen, Newport Bay on a sampling recovery of four predatory stingrays, white croakers, small trip for Cal Fish and fishes from the Southern sharks, crabs, and mantis Game's BENES program California Bight” was turned shrimp. targeting local sport fishes, down by Science, Nature and Historically, giant something memorable PNAS, because “there was one sea bass were distributed happened...Almost as soon reviewer that simply didn’t from Humboldt Bay to as the trawl had hit the deck, my chief research southern Baja California assistant, Motz (Tom and the Sea of Cortez Grothues), began yelling with populations something about a black concentrated south of Point sea bass. I was on the Conception in shallow rocky back deck in an instant reefs. According to Allen, grumbling in disbelief. I the current primary range is had never seen or heard Pt. Conception south to of a black (or now, more about Punta Abreojos, Baja properly, a giant) sea bass Mexico and in the northern being taken from inside Gulf of California (north of Newport Bay in all of my the Midriff Islands). “We 20 years of experience think they occur off the there. But, sure enough, coastline of southern Baja there it was. An Juvenile GSB California, but if they occur absolutely gorgeous little Photo thanks to Phil Garner there, they are probably in fish about 6 inches long. deep water — say 200 to It was reddish-bronze in 400 feet,” Allen said. “We color with jet-black circular believe our data. He thought we also think they or their larvae spots and huge black made it up,” Allen said. It was migrate around the tip of Baja fins…From the likes of this finally published 2008 in joining the populations on either tiny, elegant fish -- the Marine Biology. side of the peninsula, based on largest, the eldest, and most Giant sea bass start life anecdotal and personal magnificent of our as brightly colored orange observations as well as genetic nearshore fish species will juveniles with large black spots, data.” emerge.” (Western and ride the sand riffles in Very little is known Outdoors News, 1993) shallow water. According to about giant sea bass, but their He was right. A Allen, the juveniles gorge on increasing numbers enable scientific monitoring program opossum shrimp, while the better research on lifespan, size, conducted quarterly by SCUBA darker adults eat pretty much mating and population diversity. divers with the Vantuna anything they want including In recent years, scientists have Research Group (see OceanBights fairly large spiny lobsters which determined that the Stereolepis 4

OceanBights ______gigas are not even related to sea bony structures of all fishes and Harbor and Twin Rocks), bass. They’re in a completely invertebrates. In 2012 Larry Italian Gardens, Casino Point, different group of fish, the Allen and Allen Andrews were The Vee's, and Little Harbor. wreckfish (Polyprionidae) the first to validate annual There were 4 periods within which are very distantly related growth rings for one individual roughly two-week long to groupers. and provide a verified windows that sampling was To estimate age, Allen maximum age, 76 years, for conducted. counted the number of annuli giant sea bass using bomb Sites with the most on otoliths from 64 heads, radiocarbon validating individuals and biomass obtained from the Santa Barbara techniques. were Little Harbor, Goat Fish Market between January Wild, live fish are being 2010 and May 2013. These fish studied at Catalina. Two of Harbor, and the Vee's. At were incidentally caught by Allen’s students, JR Clark and the Vee's they saw an fishermen working between the Parker House, received WIES aggregation of 24 individuals in Northern Channel Islands and Wrigley Institute Summer two different sampling periods. northern Baja Mexico. When he Graduate Fellowships and spent To accurately size giants counts the rings he places a dot three months diving off Catalina underwater, the students use on each ring to ensure accuracy. Island, first locating the giants’ length-calibrated lasers and a Then he figures out how much aggregations, then trying to GoPro video camera mounted bomb radiocarbon it has, and determine their size, densities, on top of SeaDoo SeaScooters. fits that into the calibration and mating behavior. They also Two laser beams calibrated four curve of bomb radiocarbon hope to learn what impact their inches apart are pointed directly present in the Eastern Pacific. return will have on kelp bed fish (90 degrees broadside) at an Bomb radiocarbon was populations. Grants and $6,000 individual fish so that the laser produced from atmospheric dollars in crowd funding help to dots are visible in the video. nuclear testing in the 1950s and pay for the students’ underwater Stills are later extracted from shows a very distinct pattern in hydro-acoustic equipment and video and then measured using most oceans, as the atmospheric sea scooters. a software program. Using fallout worked its way into the To find the minimum length to weight relationships, population size biomass is determined for around the entire different areas. island, they chose Their calculated average biomass for the eight sites was eight sites: four 2 where they thought 36.29kg/1000m , which was they’d see giants higher than expected. House and four where they said this was due to the thought they unexpected and very large wouldn’t see them, aggregation at the Vee's. The and did the back most individuals observed were side as well as front 36 counted during the sampling side. Those eight period from July 15 to July 23, sites were Johnson's 2014. The least were seen Rocks, Little during June with only nine individuals. The giants ranged GSB Researchers JR Clark (left) and Geiger, Empire from 0.9 to 2.7 meters while the Parker House. Landing, Twin/Goat majority were around 1.3 m (4.2 (between Goat feet) in length. The 5

OceanBights ______mating as well as their size and the enormous communication to amount of eggs the females the other carry -- up to 60 million -- GSB individuals.” are thought to be group “Many spawners, but Clark believes fishes change color that they are pair spawners when they are because they are frequently seen ready to mate,” in pairs, even when they are in Clark added. “A large aggregations. good example is The students use the the kelp bass, sounds giant sea bass make to which presents a distinguish one fish from yellow or orangey another and also to measure the Largest GSB measured: 9 ft long! mask when males density of giants in a specific Courtesy of Parker H. House are in the spawning area. Clark uses a DSG-Ocean season. We have Acoustic Datalogger, which is seen some color an omnidirectional hydrophone International Game Fish change, from a light to dark (underwater microphone) that Association all-tackle world color type change. This has can record data over many days. record for this species is 563 been previously described as a He distinguishes giant sea bass pounds 8 ounces, caught at spawning type activity in giant sounds from other fish by Anacapa Island in 1968. But sea bass.” looking at the decibel range and the largest one seen this Another way to identify sound frequency they produce summer was 2.7 meters or spawning and courting and comparing them with giant behaviors is by their sound. The sea bass sounds recorded in an 8.9 feet and weighed at students had just gotten down to aquarium. This enables him to least 325 kilograms or 800 one of their sites when they analyze mating strategies and lbs, and is the largest ever heard a BOOM -- the sound of a describe spawning behavior of measured. very loud bass drum. “The first giant sea bass in detail. “It was relatively easy to time I heard it I thought “Although there may be some count the individuals as many something was wrong with my echoing in the sounds produced stayed in a general area,” House tank,” House said. “So I in the aquarium it will allow me said. “Many of them have checked my pressure gauge to to ground truth sounds and get a different characteristics; some see if it had dropped, but it general decibel range to work had many parasites on their wasn’t us. We looked around with,” he said. face, or scars on their fins or and a giant sea bass was coming Whatever the giants sides, or blotches so you can straight to us, and then he spawning behavior is, their more easily identify one fish checked us out and took off. We genetic diversity is small. Allen from another, although they do think the sound could be either and Andrews used change color. Some would be a call to try and get us away mitochondrial and nuclear near us and would show a because they were courting in microsatellite techniques to certain color pattern, but once that area, or to see if we were determine genetic diversity. they moved away, you would potential mates.” They found all the giant sea see these patterns change. We Spawning in giant sea bass, those in the northern Gulf think the changing of color bass has only been seen in an of California, as well as off pattern may be a signal for aquarium where there are just Southern California and Baja, two individuals. Because of were closely related. 6

OceanBights ______They’re basically one panmictic group — a panmictic population is one where all individuals are potential partners. “Our estimate is 152 breeding females, with maybe an upper limit of 500 and a range of 84 to 539,” Allen said. “So we’re dealing with a fish that’s not genetically during the first week of August. diverse anymore; relatives Giant Sea Bass sightings Society News are breeding with another, and numbered 23. Their results can we don’t know what that says to be seen at: The Catalina Marine the ultimate sustainability of http://www.seasketch.org/#proj these populations. Sobering.” Society has expanded its Board ecthomepage/53dbacf69743984 of Directors. Boardmembers are However, the king a77bd896d. Karen Norris, Mike Doran, Dirk of the kelp forest has Next year's giant sea Burcham, Paul Dimeo, David returned. Recently a Giant bass count will probably be in Tsao, Shawn Broes, Jonathan Sea Bass Count was organized early August, but check and Davies, Jim Updike and Craig by researchers at the University “like” the Facebook page, The Gelpi. Jim serves as president. of California, Santa Barbara and Giant Sea Bass Collective, at We also are expanding California State University, https://www.facebook.com/giantseaba our outreaching activities with ss, to get updates.  Northridge. Recreational divers two projects. A video, could report any sightings narrated by Jon Davies, around Southern California and produced by Shawn Broes describes servicing our CMS Thermograph Array via boat. It can be viewed from YouTube: http://youtu.be/0XWThEaDL90 The other project is a fish identification class spearheaded (pun intended) by Mike Doran and CMS member Gerald Winkel (also of REEF). Although still in its development stages regarding dates, the venue will be the Aquarium of the Pacific. Announcements will be made to Hydrophone and GSB the CMS Friends e-mail list. If Courtesy of Parker H. House you are interested please contact [email protected].