4 | April 16 - April 29, 2021 | THE LOG
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COMMUNITY Have an opinion about something you read in The Log ?
Letters/Online Comments Write to: The Log Editorial, P.O. Box 1337, Newport Beach, CA 92659
thelogeditor@thelog.com.
Letters/Online Comments RE: Floating Homes:
The Life of Southern California’s Liveaboards
(2016)
I found this information very helpful. I’m getting ready to buy or rent a liveaboard. It’s always been a dream of mine. Being a recent widow and Divorce. I need a change. I’ve had ski boats, jets skies, and the water has always called to me. Would like more information on a 40’ to 50’ foot to lease to buy. It would be the adventure of my lifetime. Thank you. — Traci Herrera
RE: Is Long Beach’s
Ecosystem Restoration Project Bad News for Boaters
harbor. As anybody that has waded in the ocean on the peninsula side knows, the water is super dirty. Your legs will get coated with plastic bags and other crap. They first need to spend millions and filter the water coming down the L.A. River. Currently, the Long Beach Harbor water is too hot and dirty, the only thing that will grow now is Bacteria! — Chris
RE: SoCal Classics:
Galatea (AUG. 25 - SEPT 7, 2017)
I used to go on the Galatea occasionally as a kid. My grandfather, Tom Bussjaeger, was cousins with Violet. — Marek Robinson
(FEB. 21 - MARCH 5, 2020)
No kelp will grow in the
Reader Q&A RE: “Balboa Island Ferry
Has Been in Service for Over 100 Years”
Q
True or false. The Fun Zone is being sold? Sad if this is true, and what would happen to our ferry?
A
The Discovery Cube, a nonprofit science center, is planning to sell the property that The Balboa Fun Zone is on, because of the financial impacts of COVID-19. The sale will include the Fun Zone building, a 21,400 square foot marina, a boardwalk,
All comments are edited for grammar and clarity.
By Jordan B. Darling including the Ferris wheel and other rides, and the parking garage. There is no indication of what the new buyer would do with The Fun Zone. The original announcement came out on Dec. 2, 2020, but the property was not officially listed until Feb. 16, according to a March 1 article from Spectrum News 1. The ferry is privately owned by the Beeker family and is not included in the sale. Have a question you want The Log to answer? Send us an email at thelogeditor@thelog.com.
FAST FACTS
Whale Watching Rises to Fame By: LINDSEY GLASGOW S O U T H E R N C A L IF O R N I A — From a $1 business in 1955 to a billion-dollar industry today, wha le watching ha s transformed into a booming industry in California and across the world. “What began about 30 years ago as a way for local sportfishing boats to survive the slow winter months has now become an important industry all its own,” the Log reported in the February 1979 issue. The first ‘official’ whale-watching trip was conducted by a fisherman from San Diego named Chuck Chamberline who put out a sign saying “See the whales: $1,” according to The Whale-watching Industry: Historical Development, a chapter written by E.C.M Parsons and Erich Hoyt for the book “Whale-Watching (Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management).” Chamberline was influenced by the slow fishing in the winter and by land-based student whale-watching ‘counts’ which had been going on since the late 1940s as part of a University of California research and government monitoring project by the pioneer whale researcher Carl Hubbs. Gray whales at the time were recovering from very low numbers after the end of 19th-century whaling practices. Interests in the whales began peaking and land lookouts, formal guides with naturalists, and informal guides sprang up all along the California coast to witness the gray whale migration between Baja California, Mexico, and Alaska. The California gray
whale became a symbol of the U.S. conservation movement in the late 1960s and was designated California’s State Marine Mammal in 1975. By the 1970s, boat-based whale watching started to take off. Commercial whale-watching spread first to the Mexican lagoons, with long-range, naturalist-led trips out of San Diego, according to “Whale-Watching (Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management).” A headline from the December 1978 Log read “Permits For Baja Whale-Watching Trips Sent To San Diego, Officials Say.” “ T h e fi r m s p l a n n i n g whale-watching trips this winter include H&M Landing, Fisherman’s Landing, Baja Expeditions, Wilderness Trails Ex-
peditions, and Baja Frontier Tours,” said the 1978 article. In 1975, whale-watching tours opened up in New England to see the humpback whales feeding in waters on the east coast and it went on to become a big business, according to “Whale-Watching (Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management).” In 1981, it was estimated the value of whale-watching amounted to $14 million in tourist expenditure from tickets, food, accommodation, travel, and souvenirs, according to “Whale-Watching (Sustainable Tourism and Ecological Management).” In 2008, the whale watching industry was estimated to amount to $2.1 billion in total expenditures.
On Board With Johnson
by J.R. Johnson
c e i m
