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Bay of jigs
Navy's stewardship of San Diego Bay has improved fishing
Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 1, 2003
One of the amazing things to watch in the last 10 years has been the arrival of San Diego Bay as a popular sport fishery.
For years, the bay was one of the best-kept fishing secrets in Southern California, but no more.
Anglers visit the bay daily, and scores hit it on weekends, drifting over or anchoring on some of the best fishing in the county.
With a backdrop that includes the spectacular San Diego skyline, the Coronado Bay Bridge and even snow-covered mountains on clear days, there is no finer place to fish.
A couple of weeks ago, 150 two-angler teams competed in the eighth annual San Diego Anglers Bay Bass Tournament. There's enough fishing to support a handful of local fishing guides, too. That's how big fishing has become in the bay.
There are several reasons for the sudden popularity of the bay, some of which are tied to fishing lifestyle changes.
Drought conditions at most of the lakes in San Diego County have driven many fishermen to seek better and more productive fisheries, and the bay was a natural switch. There are no predawn lines to get into, as there are on some of the local lakes. And bay fishing is free – no launch or fishing permit fees, only the cost of a fishing license. It's the best fishing deal in town for a boat fisherman.
But the big reason for the bay's popularity as a fishery today is that there are more fish. It's that simple. There are more bait fish, more predatory bass and halibut, even occasional bonefish, corvina, barracuda, bonito and yellowtail. Scientists have determined that San Diego Bay is one of the highest producers of spotted bay bass north of Magdalena Bay.
Studies conducted in 1972 detailed 32 species of fish in San Diego Bay. That number jumped to 72 when the study was repeated in the mid-1990s by the Southwest Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command.
"In 1972, there still was residual raw sewage in the bay," said Mitch Perdue, senior natural resources specialist for the Navy's Southwest Division. "But it's cleaned up so much now that sea horses have even come back to the bay."
Other factors, including the Navy's habitat work, have led to improved fishing conditions, and Perdue pointed some of them out during a tour of the bay. They included stops at the Navy's sand restoration and eelgrass project in the South Bay and some fish habitat work in the form of fish condos from pilings and more eelgrass work in the North Bay.
Perdue said the Navy has been doing a lot of biological monitoring of the bay in recent years. Carriers come and go, and the clandestine SEAL Team continues to use the bay for its training missions. But the Navy is giving something back, Perdue said. It's showing it's a viable steward of San Diego Bay.
Thanks to new technology such as Geographic Information Systems, the Navy has a much better picture of the bay's environmental health and ecological fitness. The bay is getting better, but overall it still needs a lot of work.
"Ninety-seven percent of the state's intertidal habitat is gone," Perdue said.
Knowing that, the Navy mapped the eelgrass in the bay and decided to augment it with projects. Eelgrass provides a valuable nursery for bait fish and is a key indicator of the health of the bay. The grass, which is temperature-and light-dependent, grows as high as 40 feet and, like the ocean's kelp, is the lungs of the bay.
In the mid-1990s, only 1,100 of the bay's 13,000 acres of eelgrass remained. But thanks to some habitat work, that acreage increased in 1999 to 1,600 acres.
More intertidal habitat was added by the Navy's sand-dredging project, in which the Navy took dredged sand and made 14 acres of intertidal habitat in the South Bay. It's under water during high tide, but during low tide it's nine acres of sand out of water and filled with bugs, worms and ghost shrimp that shorebirds and other birds love to eat.
In addition to the eelgrass and sand, the Navy has built fish condos from pier pilings that were bound for a landfill. But now those pilings are working under water in the North Bay, drawing in and housing bait fish or smaller forage fish that attract bigger fish.
A hoop-netter out one night earlier this year landed a 12-pound lobster near one of those new fish condos. That's how productive they can be.
It has been a giant success. And the Navy, which has spent $1.6 million on habitat work in the bay since 1994, along with the Port of San Diego, which has chipped in $1.1 million in that time, along with state and federal agency partners in the project, received a President's Award for the work.
"Our intent is to provide healthy habitat and a viable fishery for recreational fishermen and for endangered species such as the brown pelican and least tern," Perdue said.
Navy's stewardship of San Diego Bay has improved fishing
Ed Zieralski, San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 1, 2003
One of the amazing things to watch in the last 10 years has been the arrival of San Diego Bay as a popular sport fishery.
For years, the bay was one of the best-kept fishing secrets in Southern California, but no more.
Anglers visit the bay daily, and scores hit it on weekends, drifting over or anchoring on some of the best fishing in the county.
With a backdrop that includes the spectacular San Diego skyline, the Coronado Bay Bridge and even snow-covered mountains on clear days, there is no finer place to fish.
A couple of weeks ago, 150 two-angler teams competed in the eighth annual San Diego Anglers Bay Bass Tournament. There's enough fishing to support a handful of local fishing guides, too. That's how big fishing has become in the bay.
There are several reasons for the sudden popularity of the bay, some of which are tied to fishing lifestyle changes.
Drought conditions at most of the lakes in San Diego County have driven many fishermen to seek better and more productive fisheries, and the bay was a natural switch. There are no predawn lines to get into, as there are on some of the local lakes. And bay fishing is free – no launch or fishing permit fees, only the cost of a fishing license. It's the best fishing deal in town for a boat fisherman.
But the big reason for the bay's popularity as a fishery today is that there are more fish. It's that simple. There are more bait fish, more predatory bass and halibut, even occasional bonefish, corvina, barracuda, bonito and yellowtail. Scientists have determined that San Diego Bay is one of the highest producers of spotted bay bass north of Magdalena Bay.
Studies conducted in 1972 detailed 32 species of fish in San Diego Bay. That number jumped to 72 when the study was repeated in the mid-1990s by the Southwest Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command.
"In 1972, there still was residual raw sewage in the bay," said Mitch Perdue, senior natural resources specialist for the Navy's Southwest Division. "But it's cleaned up so much now that sea horses have even come back to the bay."
Other factors, including the Navy's habitat work, have led to improved fishing conditions, and Perdue pointed some of them out during a tour of the bay. They included stops at the Navy's sand restoration and eelgrass project in the South Bay and some fish habitat work in the form of fish condos from pilings and more eelgrass work in the North Bay.
Perdue said the Navy has been doing a lot of biological monitoring of the bay in recent years. Carriers come and go, and the clandestine SEAL Team continues to use the bay for its training missions. But the Navy is giving something back, Perdue said. It's showing it's a viable steward of San Diego Bay.
Thanks to new technology such as Geographic Information Systems, the Navy has a much better picture of the bay's environmental health and ecological fitness. The bay is getting better, but overall it still needs a lot of work.
"Ninety-seven percent of the state's intertidal habitat is gone," Perdue said.
Knowing that, the Navy mapped the eelgrass in the bay and decided to augment it with projects. Eelgrass provides a valuable nursery for bait fish and is a key indicator of the health of the bay. The grass, which is temperature-and light-dependent, grows as high as 40 feet and, like the ocean's kelp, is the lungs of the bay.
In the mid-1990s, only 1,100 of the bay's 13,000 acres of eelgrass remained. But thanks to some habitat work, that acreage increased in 1999 to 1,600 acres.
More intertidal habitat was added by the Navy's sand-dredging project, in which the Navy took dredged sand and made 14 acres of intertidal habitat in the South Bay. It's under water during high tide, but during low tide it's nine acres of sand out of water and filled with bugs, worms and ghost shrimp that shorebirds and other birds love to eat.
In addition to the eelgrass and sand, the Navy has built fish condos from pier pilings that were bound for a landfill. But now those pilings are working under water in the North Bay, drawing in and housing bait fish or smaller forage fish that attract bigger fish.
A hoop-netter out one night earlier this year landed a 12-pound lobster near one of those new fish condos. That's how productive they can be.
It has been a giant success. And the Navy, which has spent $1.6 million on habitat work in the bay since 1994, along with the Port of San Diego, which has chipped in $1.1 million in that time, along with state and federal agency partners in the project, received a President's Award for the work.
"Our intent is to provide healthy habitat and a viable fishery for recreational fishermen and for endangered species such as the brown pelican and least tern," Perdue said.
