Redondo Beach environmentalists this week celebrated the opening of a white seabass grow-out pen that’s set to help the fish grow healthily in a safe habitat before being released into the ocean.
The city’s White Seabass Grow Out program, part of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Ocean Resources Enhancement and Hatchery Program, aims to replenish the wild white seabass population.
City officials and environmentalists gathered this week to cut ribbon on the grow out pen and celebrate the official opening and its anticipated progress.
The grow-out, at the Redondo Beach Harbor Patrol Dock, will reinvigorate local efforts to raise this threatened fish population, Mayor Jim Light has said.
Local coastal builder Clark McNulty dropped the first batch of seabass, nearly 1,500 fish, into the pen on Nov. 20. McNulty’s Coastal Construction Group brought the latest project to life when crews installed the grow out pen that month.
Before 2019, Redondo Beach for more than two decades was involved in about a dozen white seabass-raising efforts throughout Southern California, Light added. The now-shuttered SEA Lab used to operate the previous grow out pens at that former marine education center.
The seabass are raised at grow out facilities until they grow to eight to 10 inches long, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, then released into the harbor.
The process, Light said, gives the fish a much greater chance of survival. It has helped white seabass polulation recover since its steady decline in the 1990s, he added.
Fully grown white seabass can reach more than four feet long, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The process of the hatchery program starts in Carlsbad, per the department, where juvenile white seabass grow to four inches before being sent to one of the 13 grow out facilities throughout the region, including the Redondo Beach grow out site.
The fish are held at the grow-out facilities until they are ready for release, typically at around 8 to 10 inches in length.
Volunteers are also needed to work one hour per week to feed fish, clean the pen and remove any dead fish from the grow out facility. A weekly schedule with assigned days will be released once sign ups are filled.
Sign up to volunteer at https://www.oceansglobal.org/form