August 2026 Club Meeting

Speaker Victoria Sperow

Victoria Sperow is a marine biologist whose work focuses on the restoration of Giant Seabass, a species that nearly disappeared from Southern California waters and remains one of the most closely watched recovery efforts in the region. She works at the USC Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability’s Wrigley Marine Science Center on Santa Catalina Island, where science, fieldwork, and hands on restoration intersect.

Victoria played a central role in raising juvenile Giant Seabass from early life stages through release size, managing their care for multiple years prior to returning them to the ocean. This work required developing feeding, growth, and husbandry approaches that increased the likelihood these fish could survive predation and adapt once released. Her experience provides a rare, ground level view of what it actually takes to move a fish from hatchery conditions into the wild with realistic chances of success.

That hatchery work is directly tied to field research and long term monitoring. After release, Giant Seabass are tracked through tagging, visual identification, and collaborative research programs that study how they move, where they settle, and how they use kelp forest habitat. Victoria works alongside a network of researchers, aquariums, and universities contributing to one of the most coordinated species recovery efforts currently underway in California waters.

For spearos and those involved in angling, Victoria’s work offers clarity around why Giant Seabass protections exist, how slow and complex recovery truly is, and what signs of progress look like underwater. Her perspective helps connect individual encounters with these fish to the broader science guiding management and restoration decisions.

At this meeting, Victoria will walk through the Giant Seabass restoration process from hatchery to ocean, share what has been learned from raising and releasing these fish, and discuss what this recovery effort means for ocean access, fisheries management, and the future of a species many hope to see fully return to California waters.