Fish Culture

The fish in Monterey Bay brought diversity to the land as well. Rumsen Indians had a fishing village for centuries at what is now Custom House Plaza. Portuguese whalers arrived in the 1850s, about the time Chinese fishermen landed at Point Lobos. Fresh fish markets were limited until the railroad arrived in 1874, then Italian fishermen moved to Monterey with larger boats to catch fish for San Francisco buyers, according to Tim Thomas, historian at the Monterey Maritime and History Museum. With growing competition, discriminatory laws were passed to limit Chinese fishing, so the “Chinatown” then in Pacific Grove turned to squid that nobody else wanted. Japanese divers arrived in 1895, settled on Cannery Row and started harvesting the abalone no one else valued. Monterey started focusing on sardines soon after that and Sicilian fishermen with large purse seiners moved in to catch tons of them for the 41 Cannery Row processing plants that were booming into the 1940s. Japanese fishermen dominated salmon fishing by then and owned 80% of the businesses on Fisherman’s Wharf until World War II erupted and they were forced to move to inland camps.

Photo: Monterey Wharf and waterfront. Ca. 1907. Credit: Monterey Public Library, California History Room

Pelicans Are Back

(Photo: Monterey Bay pelican taking off by Jane Vargas of
Monterey Bay Photos. Permission requested.)

In 1970 The New York Times grimly predicted that pelicans - "as enduring an element of the Monterey Bay scene as the sea itself" - would soon be extinct. This year, however, brown pelicans have become relatively common, and we can enjoy the delightful sight of them soaring low over Monterey and Carmel Bays, swooping down and grabbing fish. Their presence is part of a success story, evidence that there is less DDT in the ocean since the federal government banned its use in 1972. Pesticides that run off into the oceans are absorbed by fish the pelicans eat. DDT in particular then poisoned the pelicans and prevented normal development of their eggs. So few offspring were hatched that the brown pelicans went on the state and federal endangered species lists. They remain on the list, but their numbers have recovered, and several thousand young pelicans now hatch each spring and summer in their breeding sites in the Channel Islands and off the West Coast of Mexico.

(Video: Pelicans at Monastery Beach near Carmel.)