Tuna in the surf - IB

[Tman]

Wished I lived close to IB...

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2...s-stormy-surf/

Tuna for the taking in Imperial Beach


By Ed Zieralski, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Friday, January 22, 2010 at 12:20 p.m.
Kevin Carlson shows off one of the bluefin tuna he was able to pull from the surf.


IMPERIAL BEACH— Beachcomber Kevin Carlson says he never knows what the Pacific Ocean will deliver after a big storm, but Friday morning he encountered his most unusual discovery in more than 20 years of walking beaches.
Carlson found several bluefin tuna in the 35- to 50-pound class struggling in the surf line off Imperial Beach. He was just north of the Imperial Beach Pier and north of the first jetty when he spotted them. Carlson theorizes the tuna escaped from one of the tuna pens floating off the coast of northern Baja. Perhaps the recent storms tore open one of the pens.
“There were a lot of them out there,” he said. “More than a dozen, but a couple of them were fresh dead fish and a few others were struggling to get out of the shallow surf. Once they got into the surf line, they couldn’t get out.”
Carlson waded in and gathered up 35- and 50-pound bluefin and let the ocean have the rest.
“The Pacific Ocean has been wonderful and bountiful for me over the years,” Carlson said. “But in 20 years of beachcombing, I’ve never found anything like this. I’ve found lobster traps with lobsters in them, you name it. You just never know what the Pacific Ocean is going to give up.”
Carlson, who works on the sport boat The Long Run out of Marina Cortez on Harbor Island, said he plans to eat the tuna and save the carcasses for his hoop nets. He also hoop nets for lobsters.