SAC Spotter Plane Project 2012

Author note: This blog installment was penned by Michelle Gandola.

The Sportfishing Association of California (SAC) has started an Aircraft Survey Project for the summer of 2012. The last 2 years of fishing have been tough for most of the fleet. With the high cost of fuel, our SAC vessels haven't been able to spend as much time looking for schools of tuna, searching for kelp paddies or finding other fishing hot spots. So we've hired an airplane and captain to find our fleet-fish.

In just a few hours, a spotter plane can scan the ocean over an area that covers hundreds of miles, looking for areas for our captains and anglers to fish.

We started this project with the hope that we could help jump-start a great fishing season. Already our plane has consistently put the SAC vessels on fish. A lot of the bluefin tuna and yellowtail being caught are directly from the coordinates of our plane.

To make it all work, SAC coordinated a great communication process between the spotter plane and the SAC vessels. Whether they're fishing out at sea or at the dock, the vessels receive real-time information from the plane  – coordinates that pinpoint sealife and detail conditions. 

This week the SAC Spotter Plan will be flying on Friday and Saturday. One of the days, we hope to fly out to the southwest to see if we can spot some albacore tuna.

Our goal is to make sure that anglers chartering our vessels have a great fishing trip. Spotting fish from the air and working in concert with our captains goes a long way toward that goal. Keep up with breaking reports from the spotter plane at our site: CaliforniaSporfishing.org.

The Sportfishing Association of California (SAC) was founded in 1972 by leaders in the Southern California sportfishing industry. The SAC promotes, advocates and lobbies for the interests of the Southern California sportfishing community under the mission to promote marine recreation and educational activities while protecting ocean resources. Michelle Gandola serves the SAC as director of PR and marketing. Visit CaliforniaSporfishing.org for more.