in, low, white line of water
or multitudes of slight, broken splashes. Tuna raise a white wall,
tumbling and spouting along the horizon; and it is a sight not soon to
be forgotten by a fisherman. Near at hand a big school of feeding tuna
is a thrilling spectacle. They move swiftly, breaking water as they
smash after the little fish, and the roar can be heard quite a distance.
The wall of white water seems full of millions of tiny, glinting fish,
leaping frantically from the savage tuna. And when the sunlight shines
golden through this wall of white spray, and the great bronze and silver
and blue tuna gleam for an instant, the effect is singularly exciting
and beautiful.

All through August and much of September these schools of tuna,
thousands of them, ranted up and down the coast of Catalina, thinning
out the amber patches of anchovies, and affording the most magnificent
sport to anglers.

These tuna may return next year and then again they may not return for
ten years. Some time again they will swing round the circle or drift
with the currents, in that mysterious and inscrutable nature of the
ocean. And if a fisherman can only pick out the year or have the
obsession to go back season after season he will some day see these
wonderful schools again.

But as for the other fish--swordfish, white sea-bass, yellowtail, and
albacore--their doom has been spelled, and soon they will be no more.
That is why I say to fishermen if they want to learn something about
these incomparable fish they must go soon to Catalina before it is too
late.

The Japs, the Austrians, the round-haul nets, the canneries and the
fertilizer-plants--that is to say, foreigners and markets, greed and
war, have cast their dark shadow over beautiful Avalon. The intelligent,
far-seeing boatmen all see it. My boatman, Captain Danielson, spoke
gloomily of the not distant time when his occupation would be gone. And
as for the anglers who fish at Catalina, some of them see it and many of
them do not. The standard raised at Avalon has been to haul in as many
of the biggest fish in the least possible time. One famous fisherman
brought in thirteen tuna--nine hundred and eighty-six pounds of
tuna--that he caught in one day! This is unbelievable, yet it is true.
Another brought in eleven tuna in one day. These fishermen are
representative of the coterie who fish for records. All of them are big,
powerful men, and when they hook a fish they will not give him a f