PACIFIC COAST: CALIFORNIA. 



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21G. THE FISHERIES OF SAN DIEGO, LOS ANGELES, AND VENTURA COUNTIES. 



SAN DIEGO COUNTY. This county is in the extreme southern part of California. Its coast 

 is conspicuous for bold headlands of sandstone, at the foot of which is a smooth beach extending 

 fully half a mile into the sea. Beyond this is a stony area covered with kelp (Macrocyntis pyrifera), 

 stretching out irregularly about 5 miles. 



All along the coast are numerous lagoons or bays of salt water, forming broad mouths to the 

 streams entering the ocean. These bays have been washed out by the ocean and nearly, and in 

 some cases wholly, filled up by the formation of sand-bars. One of these bays, that of San Diego, 

 forms an excellent harbor. It is about 10 miles in length from north to south, and from 1 to 2 

 miles in width. Its entrance is on the north end. just south of Point Loma, and it is separated 

 partially from the sea by a low, sandy peninsula, running in a northerly direction. San Diego 

 Bay is shallow along its edges, deepening in the center. Between Point Loma, the termination of 

 a rocky ridge north of San Diego, and the Point of Rocks 15 miles farther south, the coast line 

 is concave. In the bay formed by this recess most of the outside fishing of the county is 

 carried on. 



There are no authentic accounts of the productiveness of the past fisheries of this county. 

 There is no doubt that the number of fishes in San Diego Bay has been greatly reduced by the 

 constant use of fine-meshed seines by the Chinamen. Large fishes of all species are becoming 

 rare. This is especially noticeable in the case of the "bastard halibut" or flounder (ParalichtJtys 

 maculosus). Large individuals of this species are now very seldom caught, but numbers from 2 to 

 6 inches long are daily taken and dried by the Chinamen. There is no reason to believe that the 

 abundance of the outside fishes has been materially changed by fishing. 



The fisheries carried on at San Diego ten years ago were more extensive than at the present 

 time. The advent of the Chinese fishermen, who compose three-fourths of the total of fishermen 

 in this county, and the non-construction of the Texas and Pacific Railroad to San Diego may be 

 regarded as two causes of the decreased interest in the fisheries. 



All the fishermen of this county, excepting four Americans and their employe's, are Chinamen. 

 Two Americans and assistants are employed in seal-hunting, the rest in gathering kelp, and, in 

 their seasons, bonito and barracuda fishing. The bonito appears in August and disappears in 

 November or December; the barracuda comes in April and leaves in October or November. 



The modes of fishing peculiar to each race of fishermen are described elsewhere. 



Pound, traps, weirs, and fyke-nets are not in use at San Diego, the poor state of the fish 

 market not warranting the expenditure of much capital; nor are there any gill-nets in operation. 



fllaleineut showing the several species and amounts of each kind of ft all taken in San Die/jo County during 1879. 



