Finding fish is only one responsibility aboard a Southern California sportfishing boat. Dana Wharf’s captains and crews also must navigate changing regulations, seasonal fisheries and the responsibility that comes with making a living from the ocean.
At the end of a successful Southern California sportfishing trip, attention naturally turns toward the fish count.
How many yellowtail? How many tuna? Did the bass bite? What did the jackpot fish weigh?
What anglers rarely see is how much knowledge was required before the first fish ever came over the rail.
People see Dana Wharf’s boats leaving the harbor every day, Donna Kalez said, without necessarily realizing the training and responsibility involved in getting those passengers onto the water.
There can even be some confusion about exactly what Dana Wharf offers.
“I get asked almost daily, ‘Do we do private fishing charters?'” Kalez said. “So funny. Of course we do. We are Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching.”
Whether the boat is carrying a private charter or a group of anglers who purchased individual tickets, running a sportfishing trip requires more than knowing where fish were biting yesterday.
Captains and crews operate within fisheries governed by seasons, size limits, bag and possession limits, protected species, marine protected areas and other regulations that can change depending on where and what anglers are fishing.
At Dana Wharf Sportfishing, staying current is part of the job.
Training does not stop once someone earns a Coast Guard license or learns to work the deck. Captains complete required safety training, while employees maintain knowledge of first aid, CPR, emergency procedures and passenger safety. On the fishing side, crews continually review regulations, protected species, limits and seasonal changes.
Dana Wharf also completes required daily fishing logs and maintains communication with the Sportfishing Association of California as regulations and fisheries change. The operation supports Coastal Conservation Association of California and relies on mentoring between veteran captains, younger captains and deckhands to pass along practical knowledge developed through decades on local waters.
The need for that continuing education becomes clear once a boat leaves the harbor.
Southern California’s fishery changes dramatically throughout the year. Water temperature, currents, bait availability and other ocean conditions influence where species are found and which techniques are productive. Captains need to interpret those conditions while deciding where to take passengers and what to target.
But locating fish is only part of the equation.
They also need to know whether those fish can legally be targeted and retained.
“Responsible sportfishing is not simply about catching fish,” Kalez said. “It’s about knowing the regulations, identifying the species correctly, taking care of the resource, and teaching the next generation how to fish responsibly.”
That information ultimately has to make its way from the wheelhouse to the rail.
Dana Wharf crews pass along regulations through pre-trip announcements and instruction throughout the day. Captains and deckhands help with fish identification, legal limits, handling and release practices while answering questions as conditions and catches change.
The responsibility becomes particularly important aboard open-party boats because the passengers can arrive with vastly different levels of experience.
A longtime Southern California angler may step aboard already knowing how to pin a sardine onto a hook, identify a calico bass and work a conventional reel.
The person standing beside that angler may never have touched a fishing rod.
Dana Wharf expects its crews to be able to work with both.
According to Kalez, the company’s philosophy is that employees should teach guests rather than simply transport them to the fishing grounds. First-time anglers receive help with everything from handling a rod and baiting a hook to identifying fish, understanding regulations and respecting the catch.
“We are all about giving everyone a little seminar, not just on the kids trip day,” Kalez said.
Children are an especially important part of that approach.
Dana Wharf hosts Kids Fishing Sundays, which include a free fishing clinic followed by a noon fishing trip, and works with nonprofit organizations that introduce children to fishing, including Fish for Life and Rollo Kids at Sea. The operation also offers summer fishing camps and after-school kids fishing camps designed to give young anglers more time on the water while building their skills and confidence.
Those programs create a somewhat different environment from a family fishing trip. Without mom or dad standing beside them, children have an opportunity to become more independent anglers, interact directly with captains and deckhands and ask questions they might otherwise leave to a parent. The setting gives crews time to explain not only how to fish, but why certain techniques, regulations and conservation practices matter.
Kalez said Dana Wharf takes particular pride in helping children catch fish for the first time, but the experience is about much more than whether a child comes home carrying one.
Capt. Brian Woolley works with young anglers through field trips and kids camps and said part of that education involves teaching children why fishing regulations exist in the first place.
“We definitely work with a lot of young anglers,” Woolley said. “We feel it’s very important for them to understand the parameters of what we can keep and why there are legal size limits on certain species of fish. It’s important for us to help them understand the conservation side of the whole fishing element.”
That can mean explaining that an undersized fish is not simply something the law requires an angler to release. It is also a fish that has an opportunity to grow and remain part of the fishery.
“We want them to understand that even though you can take this particular species home, the ones that were undersized will be there when you come back next time,” Woolley said.
The lesson continues when a legal fish does go into the sack. Woolley said keeping a fish carries a responsibility to respect the resource by actually using the catch.
“It’s also important for them to understand when they take this fish home that they respect the resource by using it,” Woolley said. “The fish doesn’t end up in the back of the freezer and not get used for months and then inadvertently get thrown out because it’s been in the freezer for too long.”
Instead, Woolley encourages young anglers to understand the connection between harvesting a fish and putting that catch to use.
“Take that fish home, enjoy it and know that you followed the legal requirements for harvesting and taking that fish,” Woolley said. “At the same time, you provided food for yourself and your family.”
Those lessons introduce young anglers to a larger idea behind responsible fishing: catching a fish is only part of the experience. Knowing when to release one, understanding why regulations exist and respecting a fish that is harvested are skills that can follow them long after the boat returns to the dock.
Learning how to bait a hook, work a rod and reel, handle a catch properly, identify a species and understand why one fish can be kept while another must go back introduces a young angler to both the fun and responsibility that come with fishing. Camps and youth programs can build on those lessons over multiple outings, giving children an opportunity to become more comfortable asking questions, making decisions and doing more for themselves each time they step aboard.
For Dana Wharf, teaching those skills also means helping develop the next generation of Southern California anglers. A child who initially boards without knowing how to bait a hook may leave with a better understanding of the fishery, the regulations that protect it and the role anglers play in taking care of the resource.
It also helps explain why customer service and patience are considered part of Dana Wharf’s operating standards.
Kalez said employees are expected to remember that they represent a family business started by Don Hansen in 1971. Along with safety and sound judgment, Dana Wharf emphasizes respectful and patient treatment of customers, particularly children, families, seniors and people who may be experiencing the ocean for the first time.
“Customer service, treating people with respect and kindness, is what we are all about,” Kalez said. “We are selling experiences.”
The same thinking applies to how crews treat the resource providing those experiences.
Safe handling, proper release practices, avoiding unnecessary waste, respecting marine protected areas and recognizing protected or prohibited species are all part of responsible fishing. But stewardship can also involve decisions that no regulation requires an angler to make.
Consider a large bass that could put an angler in contention for the day’s jackpot. Keeping it may be perfectly legal, but if that fish is not going to be eaten, there’s another question worth asking: Does it need to come home at all? A trophy-sized bass may have spent decades in Southern California waters, and releasing it gives that fish an opportunity to continue contributing to the population and perhaps be caught again. I’ve witnessed these conversations firsthand, as deckhands encourage anglers to think beyond whether a fish can legally be kept and consider whether it should be.
There’s a practical reason for taking those responsibilities seriously.
Sportfishing businesses depend on healthy fisheries.
A productive ocean supports the fish that attract anglers, the boats that carry them and the coastal businesses connected to recreational fishing. Conservation and fisheries management therefore have direct implications for an industry whose future depends upon maintaining healthy resources and continued public access to them.
And the rules governing those resources aren’t static.
Southern California anglers regularly navigate changes involving rockfish, groundfish, bass, highly migratory species and other fisheries. Captains and crews have to remain aware of current requirements rather than relying on what was legal last season or even earlier in the same year.
For passengers, much of that work happens quietly.
An angler may simply hear the captain announce what the boat will target that morning. Behind that decision can be information about water temperature, recent catches, bait availability, current regulations, weather and where the vessel can legally fish.
Then the ocean gets a vote.
The bait can disappear. Conditions can change. The intended species may refuse to cooperate. Something entirely different can suddenly show up beneath the boat.
Captains need enough knowledge of the local fishery to adapt while keeping the trip productive, safe and legal.
That combination of experience and adaptability is one of the skills professional sportfishing crews develop over years on the water, and it illustrates why education within the industry never really ends.
The ocean changes.
The fish move.
The regulations change.
The crews have to keep learning with them.
For Dana Wharf, whose boats have carried generations of anglers out of Dana Point Harbor, that knowledge is also tied to the reputation of a family business approaching its next chapter.
Kalez said employees are expected to understand that every trip contributes to a legacy that began with her father more than 55 years ago. Maintaining that legacy means finding fish and providing memorable days on the water, but it also means teaching people how to participate responsibly in the fishery.
A full fish sack may make the photograph at the end of the day, but a successful sportfishing operation carries a larger responsibility than producing a good count.
It has to understand the resource that makes that count possible.
That means knowing the fish, knowing the regulations and teaching the anglers who may someday introduce another generation to the same waters.
Because knowing when and how to catch a fish is important.
Knowing when not to catch one matters, too.
