Striped Mullet Ecology in Santa Monica Bay
at
Malibu Lagoon and Ballona Estuary:

Fitch & Lavenberg Quoted Text Regarding Striped Mullet Ecology:
"Natural History Notes - Mugill cephalus has been reported as ranging from Monterey Bay, California, to Chile, but in recent years has seldom been seen north of Playa del Rey. At times mullet have been very abundant in the Salton Sea, where they have provided a flourishing commercial and sport fisheries. They are most commonly observed in coastal estuaries, bays, lagoons, and flowing waterways (irrigation canals and such) throughout Imperial Valley and from Los Angeles County south. They aggregate in small schools comprising a dozen to several hundred individuals; if they are present in a given body of water, a few individuals will be seen jumping at the surface at almost any time of day. They are reported to attain lengths of 3 feet (91.4 cm), but the largest noted in the Salton Sea during investigations of the fishery were 2 feet long (60.9 cm) and weighed just under 10 pounds (4.5 kg). Many of these large fish were sixteen years old, which is about maximum for the species."

"M. cephalus apparently spawns during winter months in the eastern Pacific, and it is generally believed that spawning takes place well offshore over deep water. Silvery postlarvae and juveniles are often captured in plankton nets and with dipnets near the surface, many miles at sea. At just over an inch (2.5 cm) in length they commence shoreward, and 2- 5-inch (5.2 to 12.7 cm) individuals are abundant in shallow water. Mullet up to a foot (30.5 cm) long or longer commonly enter freshwater streams and rivers, and some individuals have been known to travel fifty miles (80.5 km) or more upstream. Female mullet attain larger sizes than males."

"The pelagic larvae are eaten by numerous surface-feeding predators including tropical tunas, whereas juveniles to 6 inches (15.2cm) or so are preyed upon rather heavily by fish-eating birds (pelicans, gulls, terns, frigate birds, etc.). Mullet food habits have been studied in many parts of the world, and diatoms, blue-green algae, green filamentous algae, cladocerans, and other microscopic plants and animals comprise the bulk of their diet."

"Mullet otoliths have been found in 25-million-year-old Miocene deposists near Bakersfield. Otoliths have also been found in Indian middens near the Salton Sea."

"Capture data. - Mullet seldom will take a baited hook, but in irrigation canals and other freshwater habitat where they are abundant, they sometimes can be caught with a tiny hook that has been baited with a small fragment of earthworm, or with a tiny dry fly. When mullet were abundant in the Salton Sea, fish were commonly snagged with a surf-casating outfit and a large treble hook while they aggregated in shallow water near the mouths of various freshwater inlets. In conjunction with this method, clubs, spears, and dipnets were also used effectively."

"Commercial fishing has been almost entirely with gill nets, primarily in the Salton Sea and the salt ponds in southern San Diego Bay. The fishery has been so sporadic at both localities because of variations in mullet abundance, gear restrictions, closed seasons, poor market conditions, and other factors. In the past fifty years the commercial catch has ranged from about 1300 pounds in 1941 to a peak of 503,000 pounds in 1945. The flesh is white but quite oily; it makes a topnotch smoked product."

"Other family members. - No other member of the family is known from California, although at least seven other mullets exist in the tropical eastern Pacific."

"Meaning of name. - Mugil: to suck, in reference to the mullet's presumed feeding behavior; cephalus: pertaining to the head, which in the mullet is quite distinctive."

The nature fakery biostitutes at UCLA (Richard Ambrose and his former students) as well as at Heal the Bay, where some of Richard Ambrose's former students find their jobs after being brainwashed by him do not believe that the Striped Mullet is important, which is disturbing to this scientist and naturalist. And obviously as a field biologist, I am curious to know why the Striped Mullet is not being discussed by Richard Ambrose as a very important goal in the restoration of Malibu Lagoon. This fish is more important in the ecology than any other fish in our southern California wetlands, estuaries and open sea. The Striped Mullet is the only fish that is catadromous in all of southern California. This natural history and behavior trait of growing up in freshwater-low alkaline/saline waters of an estuary, and then going to deeper waters off the coast to spawn is unique, and this feature alone makes it a significant fish to manage for in Malibu Lagoon. Of course, the endangered Tidewater Goby is an important fish to manage for as required by law, but it in terms of ecology, it is of less importance to manage for at Malibu Lagoon. Even killifish and mosquitofish are more important ecologically and from a natural history perspective at Malibu Lagoon. Nonetheless, it would be an impoverishment of biodiversity to lose the beautiful Tidewater Goby as part of the Malibu Lagoon ecosystem. Fortunately, the requirements for survival of Tidewater Goby, California Killifish, Mosquitofish, and Striped Mullet are similar at Malibu Lagoon. That is why all four of these fish have been living here for several decades. One additional feature about Striped Mullet that make them more important in ecology than the Tidewater Goby, Killifish, or Mosquitofish, is that Striped Mullet are vital to the fisheries for tuna and other large fishes, as well as many seabirds in the open ocean, namely pelicans. A unique and wonderful opportunity is being missed at restoration and recovery if the Striped Mullet is not the focus of management at Malibu Lagoon. Striped Mullet require abundant green algae, bacteria, and aquatic plants in a muddy fine debris such as currently is found at Malibu Lagoon. Where is the research that links zoology and botany, in other word, plants to fish to birds in a food chain at Malibu Lagoon? Not in any of the UCLA or Richard Ambrose papers. Is it lack of ecology or biogeography emphasis and focus? It's both, and the ecological focus and biogeographical focus is found only here in this web page and other pages by Robert 'Roy' van de Hoek, regarding Malibu Lagoon. I am virtually the only scientist with a southern California focus that is not afraid to question and think out of the box because I'm not tied to politics, money and pursestrings such as scientists affiliated with universities and pseudo-environmental organizations such as Heal the Bay. Nearly all academic scientists at universities and museum scientists have become paralyzed by politics and money and their position titles, so that they will not fight the developers and politicians for fear of losing their job and money through consulting. The Malibu Lagoon proposed project of "fake" restoration would cause massive die-offs of fish, algae, aquatic plants, wetland plants, and a loss of nesting herons and egrets, loss of nesting grebes and coots, loss of future nesting terns and plovers, and preclude the possible near-future nesting of Osprey and Eagles. In conclusion, it is absolutely disgusting that Richard Ambrose and Heal the Bay advocate dredging, diking, and filling the wetlands, lagoon, and deepwater habitat of summer season at Malibu Lagoon. Virtually thousands of tons of sediment and wetland vegetation will be destroyed by engineers that Richard Ambrose and Heal-the-Bay have chosen as the consultants to do the genocide of nature at Malibu Lagoon.