Giant Sea Bass count for Dr. Milton Love

[MaxBottomtime]

I am forwarding this from Dr. Milton Love. Please consider participating.
The Great Giant Sea Bass Count
Okay, so how many giant sea bass are there in southern California?
What It Is
Giant sea bass (we still like to call them black sea bass), Stereolepis gigas, were almost fished out nearly 50 years ago in southern California. While they are now starting to make a comeback, we don’t know how many of them there are in southern California. The Great Giant Sea Bass Count is one way to estimate the minimum number of these fish in our waters and is an important part of a joint research project between researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara and California State University, Northridge to learn more about giant sea bass populations.
When It Takes Place
1– 7 August.
What to Do
1) Dive any location in southern California – reefs, oil platforms, shipwrecks, breakwaters, submarine canyons, sand flats, islands, mainland, shallow water, deep water – we don’t care.
2) Each dive can be for as long as you want – there is no minimum or maximum time.
3) On each dive avoid covering the same sea floor twice – so you don’t count the same fish twice.
4) For every dive record the following:
A) Date and start time
B) Location: include latitude and longitude of your dive site—this is important data; if you can’t provide this, the name of the dive site and/or your bearing from a distinct coastal landmark will be useful.
C. The number of giant sea bass and each fish’s length.
C) Bottom depth.
D) Habitat type:
a. All or mostly rocks or other hard material or all or mostly sand
or mud.
b. Lots, some, or no vegetation (kelp, sea grass etc.).
5) IMPORTANT: If you don’t see any giant sea bass that is okay, please let us know that. Zeros are important information for science.
6) Register for the count and learn more by liking our Giant Sea Bass Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/giantseabass.
Specific Questions Regarding the Survey?
Query Milton Love: love@lifesci.ucsb.edu
Some Information About Giant Sea Bass
Love, M. Certainly More Than You Want to Know About the Fishes of the
Pacific Coast. Really Big Press.
How to Report
Send your findings to Milton Love: giantseabasscount@gmail.com
or snailmail to: Milton Love, Marine Science Institute, University of
California, Santa Barbara,
CA 93106.

Added on Date: 18:52:01 06/05/14

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[drbill]

Two years ago there was a group of about 50 GSBs off our East End. I saw video shot by another diver, but he wouldn't tell me where it was. I can't really blame him. I've seen more than 20 on a single dive out here at some of the courtship sites. It is so good to see them coming back... I never saw a single one back in the 60s or 70s (but then most of my diving back then was during the academic year rather than summer).

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Ian Uhalt shot this video off Palos Verdes last Summer. Enjoy.

 

[drbill]

I've got two of my "Munching & Mating in the Macrocystis" cable TV episodes about the giant sea bass on YouTube:

[video=youtube;2TBGKZ24UYo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TBGKZ24UYo[/video]

[video=youtube;PFqJ1u-RRJw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFqJ1u-RRJw[/video]

 

[jscan1]

I've seen one two out of my last three dives at Lajolla Shores, just came up over the wall on way back in, in about 30 ft of water

 

[drbill]

Phil, since you dive the murky waters of the "Big Island," I wonder if you can confirm what I've heard from a few divers over there across the Channel. I'm hearing that some GSBs apparently tuck into hiding spots in the port breakwaters during winter.

 

[fnfalman]

I was just at Goat Harbor this last Saturday and didn't see any. Usually black seabass sighting at Goat Harbor is a given.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Phil, since you dive the murky waters of the "Big Island," I wonder if you can confirm what I've heard from a few divers over there across the Channel. I'm hearing that some GSBs apparently tuck into hiding spots in the port breakwaters during winter.

I used to see two very large ones near Angel's Gate but haven't seen them on the Long Beach nor Redondo Breakwater.

 

[drbill]

With all the focus on giant sea bass by divers and dive boats over the past 15 years, I feel pretty confident in saying that I believe this has affected their aggregation locations. The ones that used to be in Lover's Cove 15 years ago have moved on as have most of the ones at Italian Gardens. I have to wonder if we aren't affecting their reproduction by intruding upon their privacy. Divers who show respect for the bass when they encounter them are probably not much of a problem. I'm thinking of all the ones I've seen rushing at the bass, trying to grab or pet them, etc. I've even seen them spooked by flashing strobes.

 

[Incident]

I was just at Goat Harbor this last Saturday and didn't see any. Usually black seabass sighting at Goat Harbor is a given.

I dove Goat Harbor on Sunday, and spotted one fairly large black sea bass (perhaps in the range of 6+ feet long). Others on our boat encountered a group of four of them.

Saw it at about 35-40' depth just at the edge of the kelp. I was able to get within arms reach. What a treat that was.