Santiago - 8-4-2021 at 12:41 PM
Interesting article on the Giant sea bass populations in Mexico and California here.
David K - 8-4-2021 at 04:29 PM
Thanks Jim. Nature is sure mightier than humans give her credit for!
Don Jorge - 8-4-2021 at 04:50 PM
I have no doubt BSB have made a comeback in the USA and there are lots of BSB in Baja off the remote Pacific areas. It is the remoteness of the Baja
fishery and the realities of fishing in the Pacific Ocean vs fishing in the Sea of Cortez, which keeps BSB populations viable in Baja.
Locally in CA, we often saw BSB while scuba diving both San Clemente and Catalina Islands. Nothing quite like hanging out in a kelp forest and
suddenly feel a presence of something very big, very close. Looking around and then seeing a small school of 400 pound BSB meander by is a sight you
never forget.
However, and this is just mho, if they were to open BSB to commercial and recreational fishing the populations in the USA would quickly be
compromised. Every spearo in the country would be targeting BSB, big ones especially, and it would not take long to pretty much wipe the big ones
out, again.
Back in the early 90's, local BOLA guide Rafa Cuevas had found a hole off of Isla de La Guardia near Este Ton in about 300 feet of water. We would
catch and use small yellowtail for bait. I hooked one but did not turn it quickly enough and it broke off.
As I recall he caught about 5 big BSB from that hole and that was that. Anectodical evidence perhaps of the precariousness of the mature BSB
population?
Good article and thank you for sharing it.
SFandH - 8-4-2021 at 05:07 PM
I had no idea how giant they are - largest 9 feet, 700 pounds!
Good thing for them and us that large parts of the Baja coastline are sparsely populated.
Tioloco - 8-4-2021 at 05:27 PM
Good article, nice to see things are not as grim as the other science suggested.