Nothing made Jon Mansur happier than the two words: “Got one!”
That’s what he shouted each time he saw a swordfish finning – when the fish bask at the ocean’s surface, making them easy for fishermen to spot from a distance.
“A lot of people have different passions in their life, but for my father, it was swordfishing,” Todd Mansur said of his father, who died March 11 at the age of 77.
“It’s a thrill that can only be described by doing it,” Todd Mansur said. “It’s called purple fever (because the swordfish are purple in the water), and it’s such an addiction to that fish.”
On Sunday, a celebration of life was held in the Dana Point Harbor for the longtime fisherman, a pioneer in the sportfishing industry, and also co-founder of the harbor’s popular Jon’s Fish Market. Local harbor merchants donated food and flowers for the ceremony and hundreds shared their stories and memories of the gregarious man.
Jon Mansur, of San Clemente, and his brother, Larry, developed an intricate netting system in the 1970s that allowed fishermen to haul in massive numbers of swordfish at a time. A decade later Mansur perfected harpooning swordfish, mainly to offer those fishermen an effective alternative to their nets.
As more began using the giant nets, which work as a sort of blanket catching the swordfish and anything else around them, Mansur tried to first adjust the size of the nets’ weave to address the unintended problem, but ultimately he started advocating against their use entirely.
Many other fish and marine mammals were being caught.
“My father and my Uncle Larry had environmental concerns,” said Todd Mansur, who grew up fishing with both and is now a boat captain for Dana Wharf Sportfishing and Whale Watching.
They invited observers onto their ships to monitor what was being caught, information that later played a significant role in decisions to ban the nets except where the ocean is deeper and at least three miles from the shoreline.
Now the nets are rarely used, but the observers and data collection remain to help ensure swordfishing stays sustainable, Todd Mansur said.
He said his father quickly pivoted to harpooning the swordfish because he recognized the industry’s future. In 1979, California had one of its best swordfish years ever.
“They were harpooning 18 fish a day,” Todd Mansur said of his father and uncle. “And they were doing it without nets and hooks. When you become a harpoon fisherman, your life changes, and it’s a great way to bring fish from boat to table.”
In 1980, Jon and Sharon Mansur opened Jon’s Fish Market. It was a way for Jon Mansur to spend a little more time off the ocean with his family, but through it he became an even a bigger part of the swordfish industry.
“Fishermen wanted information on the fish he sold and they sold him the fish they caught,” Todd Mansur said.
Every fish was hand-cut and Todd Mansur said he often helped his father, working long hours the days when he wasn’t in school.
Later Jon Mansur opened Jon’s Seafood where he processed wholesale fish and sold it to local restaurants.
“We’d have 5,000 lobster in tanks in a day,” Shala Mansur-O’Keefe, Jon Mansur’s daughter, recalled. “We’d have white seabass, halibut and swordfish.”
Five years ago, Mansur-O’Keefe got her captain’s license, getting a job for Trident Seafood in Alaska where she worked on fishing boats in the Bering Sea.
Despite the distance, her bond with her father grew tremendously, she said, the two talking “fish” regularly and her father making sure she knew how to tie specific knots and at what temperature caught fish should be stored.
She also taught her father something he didn’t know, she said: “Never hold a salmon by the tail.’”
“Because the fish swims one way, the muscle in the meat only goes one direction,” Mansur-O’Keefe explained. “So, when you pick it up by the tail, you’re destroying the quality of the fish.”
Brother and sister both said they are committed to carrying on their father’s passion for the sea. Mansur is heavily involved in fish conservation and still harpoons swordfish, and Mansur-O’Keefe has taken over managing the harbor fish market.
They will remember their father’s zest for life, they said, and his impact on the fishing community and the people who love the sport.
“He would always ask me, ‘Are you having fun?’” Mansur-O’Keefe said. “You always knew he cared. He had just the sweetest heart.
“I’m going to miss him, he taught me how to figure things out.”
Todd Mansur said he learned to become a “people person” from his father.
“He made sure that each person’s day on the water was their best day,” he said. “He was the person you could hear laughing from across the room and you knew exactly who he was.”
