The Orange Coast College student carefully scooped up a tiny seabass from a large cooler, placed it in a soft-sided pouch so the fish’s tiny cheek tag could be scanned, then transferred the fish to a small plastic container filled with seawater. A fellow student carefully carried the container several feet into Newport Harbor and then released the fish into the water.
This procedure was repeated more than 100 times on Friday, Dec. 12 by Orange Coast College students who joined forces with the nonprofit organization Get Inspired and the Newport Harbor Patrol to release 103 white seabass into the ocean near the Harbor Patrol Office in Corona del Mar.
The event is part of a broader ocean restoration and education initiative led by Get Inspired, which partners with schools across Southern California to rebuild marine ecosystems. The young seabass have been carefully raised in tanks on the OCC campus as part of this collaborative project.
Students from OCC have nurtured the seabass since their early life stages, feeding them, monitoring their growth, and preparing them for life in the wild. The eggs and hatchlings were provided by Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute, which is committed to species conservation and started its Seabass in the Classroom project in 2013…