Can anyone help? Sometime ago on a visit to the States I read a magazine article about a large weakfish/bass that lived in the north of the Sea of Cortez. I seem to recall it was called a Tuatava but web searches have shown up nothing so I could be completely wrong.
Its fishery peaked in the 50s but has since declined (extinct?)
Can anyone shed any light on this?

Try tatuava or tutuava. It looks almost exactly like a white seabass, but they get much bigger.
-Brian

What you are referring to is the Totuava. The story of the Totuava is much like many others that were easily targeted and overfished. Sad but true!

Here is an interesting read about the history of the Totuava fishery:

http://www.bajadestinations.com/totuava/totuahist.htm

Dave(Outrage)

if anyone is in OC, check out the mount in the Crab Cooker- 100 pound WSB looking thing- the locals did a great job wiping them out in the upper Sea of Cortez. They tried to plant them in the Salton Sea, I don't think that worked too well. There are still some in the delta of the Colorado River, San Felipe area, but they have been worked hard. Back in the day there were tales of 200 lbers. Great big croaker.

There it is. Thanks Dave ;-)

As a matter of fact, I just returned from San Felipe this weekend. My family used to go down every year especially for the fishing and almost exclusively for the Totuava. I remember my dad and I catching 60-100 lb fish using Corvina and when they had them, live Sardinias. That was back in the 70's and early 80's and believe it or not, the fishing was pretty descent. You can still catch them, just not as big or as prevailent as before. And yes, there is a moritorium on the Totuava. You might catch one but have to release them when you do. Actually, it was more the commercial fishermen intercepting the fish on their spawning routes before reaching the upper Cortez where the spawning actually occured. The commercial fleets would come up into the areas around Puertocitos and San Felipe Bay from all over Mexico and completely decimate the populations of mature, spawning fish before they ever reached the grounds. End result for any particular spawning year, no babies to supplement the population. Yes, overfishing by locals had a hand in decreasing the population but it was largely due to the lack of laws regarding the Mexican commercial industry and lack of common sense by the commercial fishermen themselves. Sounds familiar doesn't it!?


GO BRUINS....GO RAMS....GO FISHING....!!!!
FLOWING THROUGH MY VEINS!!!!

GO BRUINS....GO RAMS....GO FISHING....!!!!
FLOWING THROUGH MY VEINS!!!!