ONE YEAR OF PROTECTION AT THE 

 SANTA CATALINA FISH RESERVE 



By Charles F. Holder, L.L. D., 

 Throop College of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. 



It may be of interest to the American Fisheries Society 

 to learn the attempts to protect the island of Santa Cata- 

 lina, California, a recognized spawning ground, from the 

 market fishermen. The writer has been in touch with 

 the conditions at the islands off the coast of Southern 

 California for about thirty years, and has had every op- 

 portunity to observe the effect of over-fishing as applied 

 to the great marine fishes of the Southwest. 



Twenty-five or thirty years ago, before the introduction 

 of the gasoline launch, the waters about Santa Catalina 

 abounded in a most remarkable variety of large game 

 and food fishes, among which were the yellowtail, barra- 

 cuda, albacore, white sea bass, black sea bass, two species 

 of swordfish, the whitefish, many kinds of rock bass, and 

 many more too numerous to mention. In 1885-6, when 

 the writer first saw the island, nearly all these fishes 

 could be caught in large numbers, the supply being appar- 

 ently inexhaustible. So many were caught at this time 

 by anglers that the writer organized a little society, rais- 

 ing a fund to send the fish to Los Angeles where they 

 could be given to the poor and to various institutions. In 

 fact, there were so many that people would not trouble 

 themselves to carry them away, and on or about the year 

 1890, it was not an unusual sight to see literally tons of 

 food fishes thrown into the bay to feed the sea lions 

 and sharks. Such a supply of fine game fishes, as they 

 ranged up to one hundred pounds in weight, soon at- 

 tracted the attention of anglers from all over the world, 

 and in the year 1898 the writer caught a large leaping 

 una with a rod and reel. Soon after this the Tuna Club 

 was organized by the writer to prevent the over-slaughter 

 >nd over-catching of these fine game fishes, the work be- 



