LJ lost another long time resident sunday..
 

Went out sunday, trolling jacks around the edge of the kelp. Caught a few nice calicos and a decent cuda. It was a nice day out until I came across this guy
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You can kinda see in the pic, he was half eaten by something by the time I found him. I wasn't really bummed until i got a little closer and saw the gaping wound on his underside, I could be off but it looks like someone gaffed the poor guy, and then even realized what they did or someone told them they just gaffed -$20,000 and they ditched him.
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I'm by no means an expert fisherman, but I know what the hell a black seabass looks like, and I'm sure the majority of fisherman know these fish are endangered and deserve our best efforts to protect them. It's crap like this that gives fishermen a bad name, gives hardcore anti-fishermen ammo, not to mention it's just flat out senseless.

I dont understand how in this day and age, when it takes 30 seconds using google on your to identify any fish you catch, stuff like this happens. Know before you go all the regs of any fish you might encounter out there, save our oceans and save yourself a hefty fine...

Very well put!!:cheers1:

R.I.P.

Sadly, an unfortunate ending to such a magnificent beast. Its hard to estimate the size from the pictures. How large would you estimate his size if he was whole?

R.I.P.


Now he will be part of the food chain. Lobster meat, shark meat... Crab Meat

I'm not sure, probably around 5 feet.. Fish was older than me

Gills look fresh, bright red and not white. But looks like its starting to rot... very sad. Well, the 7 gills and Soupfin will be happy. BTW did this happen to be about 400 yrds off of the children's cove?

I hate to contradict you, but all kinds of things could of killed that fish, and that hole in it's gut is too big and not the shape that would of been made by a gaff.

If I had to guess I'd say that seabass was killed by a large mako. It's one of the only predators local that kills big fish like swords and black seabass.

They attack large fish by chasing them down with superior speed, then rip the tails off the fish to cripple them. They then come back too feed after the fish has bleed out, usually ripping off huge chunks from the tail section, and often leave the front halves of really huge fish floating.

I've seen them feed on swordfish that were as big as they are this way. I also cleaned one that had huge chunks of meat in it's gut that didn't look like swordfish, but did look like Black Seabass. I'd say a 400lb or 500lb Mako could of easily killed that fish and they get bigger up to a thousand pounds local.

Since they can't eat all of such a big prey, they go for the meat areas first then leave the rest for other scavengers.

Speaking of scavengers.... that hole in the gut where and it's placed on the topside of the floating carcass suggest it was probably made by a birds that pecked a hole big enough to get their heads in to feed on the guts.

Birds always go for the guts first since they don't have the teeth necessary to easily chew through the skin and strip meat off the bones. By making a hole they can get a lot of food quickly before other scavengers like Blue sharks arrive and finish the job.

When you fish offshore, especially around Catalina and Santa Barbara Island you see these carcass fairly often. Swords, Black Seabass, Seals, all with their back ends ripped away, usually floating with holes in their guts where the birds got to them.

Here's a good video of a Mako and a sealion where the Mako has ripped off the back end of the seal so it can't get away. Though the seal is still alive, the mako is circling him, taking bites off his back end while the seal bleeds out.

<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4jdqITF5hBo" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

Let's face it nature is cruel at times. That's probably what happened to your Black Seabass.

I'd say that the vast majority of Anglers at La Jolla know better then to mess with Blacks, and just from the pic shown I'd say injuries on this fish don't really suggest it was killed by a fisherman, but instead by a mako.

Jim

Yeah maybe a little further out. U saw it too?

I blasted a dude under the Coronado bridge a few weeks back for gaffing a short WSB, a fish that easily could have been brought aboard for a measurement. The guy didn't even wait a second to swing the gaff when it came up to color

Childrens Cove has a Harbor Seal Rookery. Prime hunting area for adult whites and Makos.

is the guy still alive?! :p

It looks more like a spear fishing wound, of even just a hole made from birds pecking it on the surface.... either way, it's still a direct result of some recreational fishermen being careless...

i was also going to say it looked like a spear wound. sucks to see a dead BSB, but at least it will feed other things nearby and isnt completely wasted. i've never even seen a bsb in my life yet, but i hope the population rebounds back enough for me to dive around and swim with one someday.

No, but I know that fish and its two buddies. The other two are about 3.5 ft.

Blasted verbally I should have said! :ack2: :D

Took me a little while to find this but your story reminded me of something that happened to a friend of mine.

He came up on a dead Black Seabass just like yours while fishing his skiff at Catalina a while back. All that was left was the head half. They figured a Mako got it, but figured the Mako had left so they picked up the head half to get some pics of it. When they pulled it out of the water the Mako showed up, so they tied a rope on it and took some pics of the mako feeding on it, then cut it loose so she could finish her meal.

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f.../9/1/mako2.jpg

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f.../9/1/mako3.jpg

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f.../1/makobsb.jpg

http://www.bloodydecks.com/gallery/f...ko1_304693.jpg

Adult Makos and Whites have been observed demonstrating territorial behavior when it comes to their kills. Like I said I bet a Mako killed that fish but considering how fresh your seabass looks it also wouldn't surprise me if that big Mako was still watching it from down below where you couldn't see her while you were paddling around taking pictures of it.

Jim

I would have rushed it to sea world,they are good with helping animals especially sea lions...

Lol the bsb was dead and I'm sure everyone here would be rooting for the shark if they saw a seal being attacked.

You'd think the furbags would be all over that liver. Mr. knothead is pretty good at finding/stealing a fish and devouring the stomach and leaving the rest. That's never happened to me.....I've just seen it. ;)

Hmmmnn....maybe the taxman was hanging around.

Haha Yeah the only thing that stopped me from giving mouth to mouth were clips from the discovery channel running through my head of great whites doing double backflips launching themselves at those fake seals.

I was thinking it was a bit big for a gaff too, but i figured it wouldve been a bit low for a spear shot.. I think a shark prob munched it after the fact but that hole has gotta be from a person. Then again i don't know much about spearfishing.

Remember 10 or so years ago that Zonie speared one then claimed it attacked him? Maybe DFG should focus more on educating the public. Ignorance never works in favor of the fish. And if the goal is protecting the fish, 1 BSB alive > $20000 in revenue from fines eh?

Sad but I'm sure well fed upon. These fish are showing greater numbers, I would like to see the ban on them lifted.

I think I had one of it's buddies check me out the last time I was out, and it was in about the same area you are talking about.

I doubt a shark killed that BSB. The wound would look like it was inflicted by a chain saw if it was from a mako. Its a bit tough to see but it looks like there is an exit hole on the other side of the fish. Maybe a gaff or a spearfisher is the culprit. Mike

LOL.... I wasn't saying the shark caused the small wound.

If the black seabass was 5ft like he says that round hole is the size of your fist, too big for gaff, but too small for a mako. It also looks like the flesh in the wound was ripped out, a shark could not make that wound, like I said it looks like a bird did it to get to it's guts.

I was talking about how something ripped the whole back end off the seabass, and ate maybe a hundred pounds of it's flesh. Something big did that, and since that's exactly the way huge makos kill things it's not much of a stretch to suggest it was a mako.

Say your walking in Grizzly Country and you come up on a fresh killed elk with the whole back end from the ribs back ripped off and missing, blood all around, and say it had a small hole in the lower chest cavity.

I suppose you could stand around, take pictures and conjecture if that hole was made from a bullet, like maybe someone poached that elk, left it there and whatever ate it just happened to find it shortly afterwards.

Me... I’m the simple type, that when he sees lightning, readies for thunder. And takes the thunder if it comes as part of the same fn’ storm.

In other words I'd get the hell out of the woods before that Grizzly that killed that elk came back and found me next to his kill and ripped me in half out of some need to protect the thing, or just plain viciousness, because all that dead flesh has got him all riled up.

Personally I've spent a lot of time offshore chumming, and fishing for sharks. We're in a nursery area so the number of small sharks to big ones is something like hundreds to one. So when something dies and floats around out there it's almost always found by small sharks first that chew off it's fins, rip out it's gills, and generally put a ton of small bite marks all over it without taking too much flesh. The birds come to and peck the hell of it as well cutting holes in the gut to get too internals, pulling off scales and eating it's organs pecking it's eyes out etc...

Take a look at this photo again. http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/a...0&d=1343229984

Notice how the whole back end has been chewed off, but the rest of it is intact? It's fins are not chewed on, it's not pecked to hell, no seals have messed with it, overall it's in pristine condition.

http://www.bigwatersedge.com/bwevb/a...1&d=1343230140

In fact with the exception of that hole in the gut (probably made by a bird) the only damage to it is that it's whole ass end is completely gone, removed by something that was able to quickly rip it in half the way a halibut can chomp a sardine. Sharks especially makos rip off the tails when they are attacking live fish, when they feed on carcasses or dead fish they usually go for the mid section and abdominal cavity.

I don't see any jaw, or bite marks on that fish at all. If that fish had been killed by a gaff or spear, and just floating around out there chances are it would of been completely messed up by smaller sharks before anything came along that was big enough to cleanly rip off it's tail. That thing looks fresh and relatively un-messed with except for that fact it's missing it's whole back end. I've seen big dead fish like that before but you only see it when they are freshly killed by big sharks. It could of been a white or mako but with the way the tail is ripped off I'd go with a big Mako.

Like this Marlin learned the hard way..
http://bluewatermag.com.au/wp-conten...-plunge_01.jpg
".....Once the huge mako got a grip on the marlin’s tail it showed its full might by crunching down and then rolling to get full leverage and snapping the tail clean off in a split second. I still remember watching awestruck as blood erupted from the marlin as the shark severed all of its arteries. The water quickly clouded with billowing plumes of an eerie red....."


That's the way big Mako's feed.

Take it or leave it.

I'm just saying that if I found that fish in that condition I wouldn't of stuck around. I know the sound of thunder, so I know enough to avoid the storm :D


Jim