How can you know how old a white sea bass is? What can the sounds that white sea bass make when they’re spawning tell you? 
How does the sea bass population in a given area relate to squid nests in the 
area? 

Today’s episode focuses on White Seabass. Today’s guests are Chugey Sepulveda and Scott Albers of PIER, the 
Pfleger Institute of Environmental Research, who has appeared on this podcast previously. Listen in to hear today’s guest discuss commercial and recreational fishing of white sea bass, and hear what they have to say about studying recordings of white sea bass sounds, where white sea bass go when they’re not spawning, and why fishing for sea bass in Mexico is different from fishing for sea bass anywhere else.

Topics Discussed in This Episode

● Studying white sea bass spawning patterns by recording the sounds that they make
● What the frequency and intensity of sound a sea bass makes can tell you
● How the recordings are recovered
● The purpose of listening for sounds that indicate spawning
● Where white sea bass go when they’re not spawning
● Why sea bass are often found near squid nests
● Why the really big sea bass found along the coast aren’t usually found by the Channel Islands
● How the squid’s population relates to the white sea bass population
● Why sea bass may be following sardines
● The methods of commercial sea bass fishing
● How commercial gill net operations work
● How much commercial fishers catch as opposed to recreational fishers
● Bluefin fishing
● Whether the squid spawning coincides with the sea bass spawning
● What is known about how sea bass age
● The difference in size and maturity for male and female white sea bass
● How length growth slows as sea bass get older
● What the otolith can tell about sea bass
● How fishing for sea bass in Mexico differs from other methods of sea bass fishing
● Plans for sea bass fishing this year
● What kind of year this will be for sea bass fishing