The Leaping Tuna
(The Thunnus Thynnus or Bluefin Tuna)
The sport of big game fishing originated in Avalon when Charles Frederick Holder caught a 183 pound Blue Fin Tuna with sport fish tackle on June 1, 1898. This angling milestone inspired him to form the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina Island, an organization dedicated to promoting conservation of our marine recourses and good sportsmanship among anglers. It was once common for vast schools of tuna to arrive in early summer within view of the island, often amazing onlookers with their ability to make spectacular leaps after flying fish. This bronze is titled “Leaping Tuna”, to honor the great game fish and to commemorate the Tuna Club’s “Centennial Years”. The base is in the outline of Santa Catalina Island, with a stripped Marlin on the upper portion in recognition of it being caught here first in 1903, and the Broadbill Swordfish below it symbolizes the worlds earliest sportfishing capture of that species in 1913.
Bronze by Artist Joseph Quillan, 1998.
Marker is on Saint Catherine Way, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
