Fish

Turtles often mistake floating plastic bags in the ocean for jellyfish, and they eat them in their entirety. Sea birds think those tiny blue beads of pre-manufactured plastic are actually fish eggs, and they swallow them whole. Their digestive systems can’t take it, and the creatures end up starving to death. The end result is dead fish and more dead sea birds as plastic pollution in the Pacific Ocean mounts. As many as 1 million sea birds die each year and up to 100,000 sea turtles die from the consumption of plastic, that inanimate object that has frustrated environmentalists for decades.

Duke’s restaurant is an institution in Huntington Beach, named in honor of Duke Kahanamoku, the father of international surfing. The décor of this beachfront dining establishment is tasteful Hawaiian with high ceilings, lots of wood, indoor plants everywhere and surfboards instead of artwork on the walls. An outrigger canoe hangs from the rafters. However, the single most dramatic element is the wall of windows facing the ocean. Besides the three dining areas, there is a straw-roofed tiki bar with indoor and outdoor seating adjacent to the pier.

Their home was once the Pacific Ocean off Dana Point, about 400 to 500 feet below the surface. These days, it’s inside a plastic container at Orange Coast College, where the marine science department plans to embalm them before taking them into the classroom for dissection. Last week, a pair of Humboldt squid — one weighing 45 pounds, the other 18 pounds — were caught by the crew of the Clemente, owned by Dana Wharf Sport fishing. The crew then handed the squid over to Morgan Richie, an adjunct professor in marine science who helps narrate whale-watching tours for the crew.

A man who hooked a giant specimen of a protected species of fish at Balboa Pier has hired a lawyer and created a website to tell his side of the story after video of his big catch surfaced on YouTube, attracting scrutiny from law enforcement officials. Amateur angler Jon Apothaker could face up to a $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail for unintentionally landing a giant black sea bass off the pier Jan. 3. Apothaker said he released the fish once he realized it was a black sea bass.

Sometimes you get the fish. Sometimes the fish gets you. It’s a lesson that Jon Apothaker learned well. On Jan. 3, the amateur fisherman made the long trek down to Newport Beach from his home in Sherman Oaks and picked what looked like a promising spot on Balboa Pier. Armed with a steel line and some mackerel for bait, he was hoping to snag a thresher shark. Apothaker knows thresher sharks, has caught thresher sharks, has eaten thresher sharks. It didn’t take long for Apothaker to feel that exciting, energizing tug on his line.

Amateur angler Jon Apothaker reeled in a lot more than a prize catch when he hooked a 5-foot-long black sea bass at Balboa Pier. The fisherman could face up to a $1,000 fine and/or six months in jail for unintentionally landing a member of the protected species off the pier Jan. 3. Apothaker’s struggle to reel in the massive fish attracted a crowd of spectators, and several videos of the incident have popped up on the Internet since....

There is one table at Amelia?s Seafood and Italian Restaurant on Balboa Island that, depending on your point of view, is either the most coveted or the most intrusive. I would like to hope that the majority of people think of it as the most coveted. I certainly fall into that category, and was quite pleased when my guest and I were able to secure it on a recent visit. The only way I could see someone believing it?s intrusive is because it is in front of the restaurant, and there is a good amount of foot traffic and peering in to see what you are eating or drinking.

A state-appointed blue ribbon task force will meet next week in Long Beach to recommend boundaries and rules for new marine protected areas, which encompass the coastal stretch from Newport to Laguna beaches. A proposed set of restrictions under the 1999 Marine Life Protection Act range from a 3-mile no-fishing zone to an all-out ban on fishing, lobster catching or other water activities, such as boating and scuba diving. Surfing and swimming in Crystal Cove and off Laguna Beach would be banned, as would kayaking and canoeing in some reaches of the Back Bay. The six-member task force, chaired by Catherine Reheis-Boyd, chief executive of the Western States Petroleum Assn.