Bonefish on the Brain Bonefish and all that relates (maybe a bit about tarpon too).

1 April 2016

Bonefish Hatchery Operation to be Established in San Francisco Bay Area

ALAMEDA, Many books about bonefish agree that the northernmost range of the bonefish extends up to San Francisco Bay. The last known catch of a bonefish happened back in the 1910’s, but with the arrival of global warming, the time seems ripe to bring bonefish back to the San Francisco Bay.

Building on the extremely successful Steelhead and Salmon hatchery programs, the State of California will bring industrial hatchery operations to the former naval ship yard on Alameda. The hatchery will aim to release 300,000 juvenile bonefish into the Bay every year near the mud flats of Alameda and Sausalito.

“We think the time is ripe to bring bonefish back to the Bay.” Said Jim McBoatface, Director of Inshore Hatchery Operations for the State of California. “We are tired of seeing the Bahamas, Cuba and Belize rolling around in all that bonefishing money and we thought the Bay Area should diversify our tech-heavy economy with some recreational fishing.”

McBoatface added that the State expects 5 or 6 jobs to be created by this effort, which has an estimated price-tag of $300M.

“We’ve been running a pilot program for the past few years, seeing how bonefish would survive in the Bay. To date, all the fish have died, but with temperatures rising every year, we have faith next year will be the year one or two of these fish survive.”

Local anglers are excited. Bjorn Stromsness lives in Alameda and also writes a blog about bonefishing. “I love bonefish, but they live so far away. As a Californian, I believe it is my right to go out and catch a bonefish when I get home from work. I’m glad the State is finally solving this problem and I totally agree that other issues like crumbling infrastructure can wait a little bit longer. I mean, what could be more important than this?”

Governor Brown, upon signing the bill authorizing the ambitious hatchery program, said “Look out Islamorada and Andros. California is coming for you. In two to three years time, I’m confident the San Francisco Bay Area will be crowned the Bonefishing Capital of the World.”

 

Tags: SF Bay

This entry was posted on Friday, April 1st, 2016 at 8:26 am and is filed under Locations. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.