Pete Thomas Outdoors

Novice angler lands record catfish in Colorado

Jessica Walton had landed only two fish in her life before reeling in the largest channel catfish ever to have been pulled from a Colorado waterway, so it was understandable that the sight of the 43-pound 6-ounce behemoth rising from the depths left her full of nervous excitement.

"When I first picked up the rod and started reeling I thought I was snagged on a rock," said Walton, 20, who lives in Aurora and was fishing in the town's increasingly famous namesake reservoir. "I pulled again and that's when the fish just took off. I reeled some more and the fish came toward the surface -- that's when I saw how big it was and I just started shaking."

It's the third state-record channel catfish to have been pulled from Aurora Reservoir in 15 months, but it was more than seven pounds heavier than the previous record. The monster cat was 40 4/8 inches long and had nearly a 29-inch girth.

It's being regarded as a world-class catch because its weight is near the upper-end average for the species, but nobody has been able to match the International Game Fish Assn.'s all-tackle world record that has stood for more than 45 years: a 58-pounder landed in 1964 at Santee-Cooper Reservoir in South Carolina.

However, with conditions in Aurora Reservoir being so fertile, it might be only a matter of time before it produces fish in the same weight range.

"Aurora Reservoir has ideal forage conditions to produce very large fish," said Paul Winkle, a biologist for the Colorado Department of Wildlife. "There's an outstanding population of crayfish and yellow perch, which provides an excellent food source for fish to grow to enormous sizes." 



When catfish reach a certain size, Winkle explained, they're no longer bottom-feeders but active predators. "This means they will go after fish, crayfish and other aquatic organisms. This predator behavior and voracious appetite allows large cats to grow even bigger."


To be sure, Walton had reason to be "shocked" at first sight of her catch. It was big, fat, ugly, and it wore long whiskers as it rose reluctantly as she reeled in the waning dusk light.

Her boyfriend, a passionate fisherman who had recently introduced her to fishing, was not by her side so she didn't quite know how to act, or how he would react after learning she had just broken a significant angling record.

"I have to admit, Chris was pretty upset at first when he heard that I was the one who caught the state record because he puts so much time into fishing and it's his favorite thing to do," Walton said. "But he's also happy for me because he's the one who taught me how to fish. Before I met him, I was the typical 'girly-girl' who was afraid to put the worm on my hook."

Walton, who caught the catfish on a nightcrawler, said she's considering having the catfish mounted as a trophy, to preserve the memory for her and -- as important -- for her jealous boyfriend.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of Jessica Walton and her monster catfish courtesy of the Colorado Department of Wildlife

-- To follow this blog on Twitter please visit @Pete_Thomas

-- Editor's note: This post also appears on the GrindTv.com outdoors blog

Rare, dazzling lobsters go on display at Maritime Aquarium

One lobster is a dazzling blue, another is calico-hued and a third is the color of a Halloween pumpkin -- and with these extraordinarily rare crustaceans together in one tank, Connecticut's Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk can boast one of the world's most unique marine exhibits.

"If you search around you can find other aquariums that have a blue lobster, and one that might have a calico or an orange lobster, but I've never seen one advertising having all three," said Dave Sigworth, spokesman for the facility, which is fortunate in ways only an oddsmaker can appreciate.

The odds of seeing all three together in the wild are astronomical. According to the Maine-based Lobster Conservancy, about one in a million wild lobsters is born blue. Calico and orange lobsters are much more rare, with perhaps one in 30 million being born in either of the two colors.

A math professor contacted by the aquarium calculated the probability of seeing all three together in the wild at one in 900 quintillion -- or one in 900,000,000,000,000,000,000.

Sigworth acknowledged that the Maritime Aquarium is lucky to have obtained all three lobsters during the past couple of months. But the aquarium also credits strong relationships with commercial lobster fishermen and seafood market reps who would rather the peculiar specimens they come across be placed on display than sold for the cooker.

Sigworth said people who stroll past the exhibit cannot help but stop and marvel at the brilliantly-colored denizens.

While the sky-blue lobster is the most striking and the mottled calico lobster is truly exotic-looking, the orange lobster generates at least as many comments because it looks like it's ready for the dinner plate.

  "All lobsters, no matter what color they are, end up orange after you cook them," Sigworth said. "So one of the comments we hear is, 'Why is there a cooked lobster in the tank?' "

-- Pete Thomas

-- Images courtesy of the Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk

-- Editor's note: This post also appears on GrindTv.com outdoors blog

Bizarre fish story becomes obsession for San Diego teacher

When a surfer recently discovered a bright-red, moon-shaped fish floundering in the surf off San Diego, Jon Schwartz arrived soon afterward with his camera and heaps of curiosity.

The surfer, Scott Williams, said the cherry-colored creature with silver specs and large round eyes "looked like it was from another planet," and that might as well have been the case.

It was an opah, familiar to most only as a fillet on a plate, a mysterious pelagic denizen about as out of its element as a fish could be. Schwartz snapped photos and began to call or email scientists.

None had heard of an opah coming ashore alive, or dead, on a Southern California beach. One of them, Phil Hastings of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, described the event as "unusual" but added that every now and then a deep-water fish does come ashore inexplicably.

Hastings cited sporadic strandings, over the decades, of the even more bizarre-looking oarfish, which have long, slender bodies adorned with crimson manes.

Schwartz, as an avid angler and an Oceanside teacher, knew this was beyond unusual. That's why he became obsessed with the story.

Hastings and Perry Hampton, a scientist at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, both theorized that the opah Williams discovered might have been hooked at the tuna grounds or suffered from an illness and simply became disoriented and swam toward shore.

Williams and his friends did not collect the specimen, and that's a shame because so little is known about the opah's life history. They're solitary swimmers, for the most part, capable of probing depths beyond 1,500 feet.

But they're sometimes found with tuna schools far at sea, so they're caught incidentally by recreational anglers and commercial fishermen. Only one or two each year are caught by San Diego-based long-range tuna boats.

Schwartz also contacted Donald Hawn, a Hawaii-based scientist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, who has performed opah tagging studies.

Hawn looked at Schwartz's photos and guessed that the opah was a female weighing about 110 pounds, or ideal size for the market, implying that Williams and his friends had discovered a fish worth an estimated $450 wholesale.

"That's the wildest part of the story -- they passed up a fish that would have cost them close to a grand to buy at the store, if purchased retail," said Schwartz, whose obsession led him to the nearest fish market, where opah fillets sold for $12 per pound.

On Tuesday "Bluewater Jon," as he is known, agreed to be interviewed by a local news station crew at the beach where the opah washed ashore.

At school he's "using the whole episode" to teach his students how to use the Internet to find experts and conduct research, and how to publish their work.

Schwartz, an avid fisherman and a published fishing author and photographer, first broke the news about the opah two weeks ago on his blog, and he's not ready to let the story go just yet.

-- Pete Thomas

Images courtesy of Jon Schwartz and subject to copyright protection

Cousteau urges support for Shark Conservation Act

As part of a large and concerted effort by conservationists to win support for the Shark Conservation Act, which is designed to protect sharks in U.S. waters from being killed simply for their fins, Jean-Michel Cousteau and his Ocean Futures Society have re-released a compelling video showing mating gray reef sharks at Rangiroa in French Polynesia.

The video, which was sent Friday as a link via Twitter, reveals a raw dynamic about sharks in the wild. Cousteau hopes it will instill a greater appreciation for sharks around the world and win more support for the Shark Conservation Act, which if passed will improve federal enforcement of an existing ban on the harvesting of shark fins.

Finning, which often entails tossing live sharks overboard without their fins, is a global practice responsible for the slaughter of an estimated 80 million sharks annually. Fins are the essential ingredient for shark-fin soup, which is regarded as a delicacy in China and a small number of other countries.

Finning is the greatest threat to sharks, whose vital role in maintaining a healthy marine environment makes them much more valuable to the planet as live creatures. Whatever your feelings, the video is worth a look.

-- Pete Thomas

-- Editor's note: This post also appears on the GrindTv.com outdoors blog.

-- To follow this blog on Twitter please visit @Pete_Thomas

 

Attempt to free captive Taiji dolphins escalates tensions

This week's cutting of nets holding dolphins in Taiji, Japan, by a European conservation group called The Black Fish, might not have freed any of the mammals and definitely has heightened tensions between Japanese authorities and representatives of other conservation groups in the region to oppose the annual roundup and killing of dolphins.

Scott West of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on Wednesday posted a report stating that he had been confronted by angry fishermen and questioned by police about the incident.

West said in the report that he had not heard of a group called The Black Fish, and that he learned through his sources that holes cut in the nets were too small to free any of the dolphins.

Later on Wednesday, Ric O'Barry of "The Cove" fame, on his Save Japan Dolphins/Earth Island Institute blog, stated that his groups have no connection to "The Black Fish" and predicted: "Based on this incident, it is likely that the situation in Taiji will get more dangerous."

The annual hunting of dolphins, for sale as live animals or for meat, is considered in Taiji to be important for the sake of tradition and for the livelihoods of  fishermen, and is governed by the Japan Fisheries Agency.

The season began Sept. 1 but rough weather has hampered the effort this week.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of the infamous Cove courtesy of Sea Shepherd

Conservation group cuts nets, freeing dolphins in Taiji, Japan

The European-based conservation group The Black Fish claims to have cut the nets of holding pens in Taiji, Japan, freeing "a number of dolphins" that had been selected for sale to aquariums and so-called dolphinariums around the world.

The Black Fish used divers who swam out in rough conditions and cut the nets of six pens. The group claims no arrests were made.

Fishermen in Taiji are participating in an annual dolphin capture that began on Sept. 1. The mammals are either sold or killed for meat. The hunt gained global notoriety last year because of the Oscar-winning documentary, "The Cove."

Earlier this week, Ric O'Barry, the renowned activist whose efforts were featured in "The Cove," reported that several Risso's dolphins had been killed by the dolphin hunters. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society recently documented the killing of pilot whales and Risso's dolphins.

The Black Fish effort was the first act of vandalism this year on behalf of the marine mammals.

Said group co-founder Wietse ven der Werf, "The connection between the dolphin entertainment industry and this annual drive hunt can no longer be denied. To be successful in our campaigns in Europe we need to get to the root of this illegal trade, which is right at Taiji."

The annual hunt is backed by Japan's fisheries agency and several aquariums and dolphinariums purchase dolphins caught by the Taiji fishermen.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo showing Japanese fishermen inspecting penned dolphins courtesy of Black Fish

Cabo San Lucas waters yield 780-pound blue marlin

A group of Texans on Sunday afternoon battled a 780-pound blue marlin for three hours off Cabo San Lucas before realizing the behemoth had died during the fight, requiring significantly more time to haul it from the depths.

This is more evidence that large marlin are patrolling the waters off Baja California's tip, but it also means those waters are holding one fewer big-money billfish as the October tournament season is about to begin.

The angler of record was Ed Shatte aboard the Shambala, captained by T.J. Dobson, who is known for finding large billfish -- this marks Dobson's third catch of a marlin weighing at least 600 pounds during the past two months. (The Shambala can be booked through Pisces Sportfishing.)

Tournament anglers might note that the marlin bit-and-spit a live sierra mackerel cast out as bait, then struck a "Gay Bob" lure (blue, white and pink) in the Destiladeras area in the Sea of Cortez.

In other Cabo fishing news, there are reports that a 330-pound yellowfin tuna was caught off San Jose del Cabo.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo by Mario Bañaga for Pisces Sportfishing

Note: To follow this blog on Twitter please visit @Pete_thomas

Captured dolphins are delivered from Japan to China

Japan's controversial practice of killing dolphins for meat or catching and selling live dolphins to be used as show animals is in the news again.

Japan Today is reporting that six live dolphins have been delivered to the Beijing Aquarium and will spend 30 days in isolation before being put on display.

Two are Pacific white-sided dolphins and four are bottlenose dolphins.

Critics contend the display of captured dolphins in aquariums is cruel because it deprives the mammals of freedom and confines them to small spaces, in which they must behave in a certain way to be rewarded with food.

More cruel is the corralling and killing of dolphins and other marine mammals.

Earlier this week the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society reported, and issued photographic evidence, that dolphin hunters in Taiji, Japan, slaughtered more than a dozen pilot whales in what the group called "the killing cove."

Taiji gained worldwide notoriety last year because of the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," which graphically exposed an annual slaughter that many hadn't known about.

It's currently open season on dolphins in Japan and relentless opposition by environmental groups appears to have slowed or stalled widespread killing.

Ric O'Barry, an activist featured in "The Cove," has helped organize an international day of protest on Oct. 14. It's called Save Japan Dolphins Day and those who oppose the hunts are encouraged to gather in front of the nearest Japanese embassy or consulate and participate in a peaceful protest.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of pilot whales killed off Taiji courtesy of Sea Shepherd

Note: To follow this blog on Twitter please visit @Pete_Thomas

More sea otters being attacked by sharks off California

California's iconic and long-embattled sea otters are now threatened by what appears to be an increased presence of predatory great white sharks.

The state's Department of Fish and Game on Wednesday said it had collected 19 injured or dead shark-bitten otters in August, and seven so far in September. The August figure was a record number.

Water temperatures off the central coast are unseasonably cool and that might help explain the apparent presence of more white sharks than during a normal summer.

Interestingly, white sharks do not typically prey on otters. Adult white sharks prefer larger elephant seals and California sea lions. Their primary feeding grounds are near rookeries at Año Nuevo and the Farallon Islands.

"This would explain why the majority of the otters collected have a single bite mark," DFG scientist Michael Harris said in a news release. "These bites are more investigative -- like a taste test."

Some scientists believe white sharks are growing in number off California because of longstanding protective measures, such as a shark-fishing ban and outlawing the use of gill-nets in coastal waters.

Harris, however, said a reliable population estimate does not exist.

California's charismatic sea otters, once hunted to the brink of extinction, have been struggling as a species for various reasons -- pollution, malnutrition and shark attacks among them. They have been in decline for two consecutive years and now number about 2,700 animals, which reside within a 200-mile range from about Pigeon Point to Gaviota State Park.

-- Pete Thomas

-- Editor's note: This post, with a different photo display, also appears on the GrindTv outdoors blog

-- Great white shark image courtesy of Christy Fisher / Sharkdiver. Sea otter image courtesy of Monterey Bay Aquarium

Dolphin hunters in Taiji, Japan, have logged no kills--yet

For those curious about what's happening with the dolphins in Taiji, Japan, where a roundup began on Sept. 1, not a single mammal has been slaughtered -- yet -- inside the infamous Cove.

"But there is something else going on here, something just as barbaric, something just as cruel," said a report on the Oceanic Defense website.

"The dolphins are still being hunted, they are still bring driven into the Cove, but instead of facing instant death, they are forced to live the rest of their lives trapped and starved for our amusement -- dolphins that are being sold to marine parks around the world where they will live out their shortened lives performing tricks for food, never to swim in the ocean again."

Because the dolphin hunters have not yet killed any of the animals they've captured, criticism is focusing on the captive dolphin trade and on marine parks around the world that purchase dolphins from the Taiji hunters to exhibit them as show animals.

Opposing groups such as Oceanic Defense and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which have teams in Taiji, believe the killing will commence after publicity wanes and the monitoring teams depart for home because they no longer afford to remain on site.

"We understand that dolphin aquariums around the world are feeling the political and economic heat of being associated with the dolphin slaughter in Taiji, so a deal has been struck with the 'fishermen' of Taiji," Scott West of Sea Shepherd said Tuesday in a website report. "They have agreed to not kill dolphins in September and the live traders will select many dolphins during the month."

After September, it's believed, the waters of the Cove -- made famous last year by the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove" -- will again turn red with the blood of dolphins killed for their meat.

Taiji, the birthplace of whaling in Japan, is an ancient fishing village with a longstanding tradition of hunting and killing dolphins. Meat from the Risso's dolphin sells for about $10 a pound in local markets.

Taiji hunters annually kill up to 1,500 dolphins and the hunts are supported by Japan's fishing agency. Taiji officials apparently do not care what the Western world thinks about its traditions, and do not appreciate criticism from outsiders.

In an Associated Press story two weeks ago, Taiji Mayor Kazutaka Sangen was quoted as saying, "We will pass down the history of our ancestors to the next generation [and] preserve it. "We have a strong sense of pride about this, so we are not going to change our plans for the town based on the criticism of foreigners."

Those wishing to speak out against the hunts or get involved in the effort to oppose them can contact either of the above-mentioned groups or visit the Save Japan Dolphins website for a list of possible options.

-- Pete Thomas

Photo of the infamous Cove near Taiji, during last year's hunt, courtesy of Animal Planet