Sam, I've acknowledged your experience with these fish underwater and topside prior to their being given protected status (in part due to the spearos of your era who helped further decimate them, including my instructor Ron, Bobby Meistrell [who now regrets what was done back then and protects these fish] and others).
However, I don't understand why you need to sound arrogant when stating your opinions.
I don't remember when you first started diving on SCUBA, but I believe it was in the early to mid 50s. Correct? While I was too young to do SCUBA then, I wasn't that far behind you (starting in 1961). My dives until 1969 were all in fresh water, so I did not have experience with the GSBs you did during that era. Unfortunately by the time I got to Catalina, they were a rarity.
A five foot GSB is not a 300 pound fish! some where around the 200 pound plus size..
I would certainly agree if this were a 5 ft fish. My estimate of its length (as well as that of the numerous local instructors who saw it as well) was that this fish was bigger than that and certainly in the 350 lb category.
I recognize that according to drbill he began diving some time after God filled up the ocean, but neither of you were around when then GSB were being harvested by worm fishermen and spear fishermen therefore have no knowledge or experience to compare size and weight of a GSB underwater as compaired to land weight.
I merely state the facts as to when I began diving. I am too young to match your experience yet, but I see no reason for you to make such a comment just because you've been SCUBA diving longer than I have.
I have just a tad more experience up close and personal in BSB aka GSB unnderwater and certainly top side hanging from a tripod than you two modern late model tube suckers will or can ever have..
Yes, you have. And it was the divers in your era who helped bring these fish to near regional extinction. Your reference to "late model tube suckers" is just one example of the arrogance I find in some of your statements.
I have a bunch of B&W pictures of BSB (GSB) taken 40 or more years ago, but I do not have a scanner to transfer. if I did it would be interesting to have you two experts to estimate the weights of the fish as comparied to the actual weights.
And I have, or have access to, a number of pictures of GSB taken back in the 1890s, early 1900s on up to the 1950s. As I've stated in my earlier post, you are correct in that it is difficult to estimate actual weight when seeing these fish underwater. But please don't belittle the experience of others if you have not had directly observation of the fish in question.
The great F&G bio John Fitch spent his life studing the BSB (GSB)and published a number of articles and left a libaray of observational notes...may want to do a little research on John's work..He was and is the expert and the fountain head of BSB knowledge
Certainly John did a lot of great pioneering work on the GSB. However, his research was somewhat incomplete since he rarely had access to the otoliths in the head (the heads being cut off by commercial fishers bringing in their catches) and often not even the digestive system (since the entrails were usually discarded as well).
FYI drbill, your basic instructor, Ron Merker had a world record for the BSB aka GSB.
sdm
And you know I know that since we've discussed it previously.
Just because you started diving a long time ago, and certainly have had experiences we all wish we had as well, does not necessarily make you an expert on current day conditions. I rarely claim expertise despite nearly 50 years of diving history and a Ph.D. in marine ecology. There are so many things I don't know about the sea, and don't claim to. It is those very things that draw me back time and time again.
I remember one highly recognized fish expert at a university stated that rock wrasse are rarely cleaners. I contacted that individual with pictures showing rock wrasse as regular cleaners, but largely specializing on halfmoon (occasionally other fish including garibaldi). He was quite surprised even though he had been studying fish about as long as I'd been diving.
Sam, although people seem to see me as some sort of guru, they also know that I am a pretty humble person... especially about things I know little about. I'm always willing to HELP others by sharing what I do know, and as a scientist I am pretty open to new information that comes in from a newly certified diver, an angler or other source that some might not be so wiolling to listen to.
I certainly welcome information from your many years of experience, but it would be nice if it were delivered with less arrogance just because someone contradicted your opinion on a fish you have not even seen.
