When vandals hit a string of memorials along San Pedro’s Harbor Boulevard in late 2023 and early 2024, it left many families in the port town devastated.
But late last month, those families came together to celebrate the restoration of one of the remembrances — the Fishermen’s Memorial that was originally installed in 1999 and listed the scores of families who settled in the harbor for its commercial fishing opportunities.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union’s Harry Bridges memorial has since been repaired as well. And work is underway on the large “Jacob’s Ladder” and wall memorial to the Merchant Mariners by the group supporting that effort. The American Merchant Marine Veterans Memorial, next to the Los Angeles Maritime Museum, was the first of the monuments to be put up — in 1986 — on the grassy area that stretches north along Harbor Boulevard.
The thefts were part of a growing trend of taking valuable metals to be melted down and sold.
Los Angeles Port Police arrested three people in connection with numerous memorial plaque thefts in the Harbor Area and South Bay on Feb. 13, 2024.
The fishing industry memorial, located at the north end of John S. Gibson Park, was created with the support of the port town’s many families with ties to what initially drew so many immigrants to the town.
The April 25 ceremony brought an estimated 350 people out to celebrate the rededication of the beloved monument to the town’s many residents with roots in the industry. Commercial fishing put San Pedro on the map and gave rise to such traditions as the Fishermen’s Fiesta, a beloved annual event for many years that included a ceremonial blessing of the fleet and hundreds of decorated fishing boats parading in the harbor.
“(San Pedro) would not be the Port (of L.A.) without the fishing industry,” said Kris Pielago, whose grandfather came from Croatia to fish San Pedro’s waters.
Pielago took the lead in bringing the memorial back following the damage. Her mom was part of the group that got the memorial built and Pielago later spent months sorting through old documents and boxes in her own follow-up mission to get the damaged monument repaired and restored.
“It truly started with the immigrants coming from Croatia — Yugoslavia at the time — and Italy, Spain, Mexico, Greece, Japan,” Pielago said of San Pedro’s widespread fishing reputation. “It was a melting pot of so many nationalities that came together to fish on common ground, to work in the canneries.”
Pielago took much of the lead researching what would be needed to restore the beloved monument and keep it safe from thieves going forward. The materials were changed from bronze — attractive and valuable to thieves, who take the material to shops where the metal is melted down for quick cash — to stone or marble. The old bronze family plaques were quick and easy to steal.
From Pielago’s standpoint, the new look is an improvement, easier to read and won’t be harmed by weather as much of the old monument was. The material also won’t attract thieves.
The monument, 510 S. Harbor Blvd., just south of Fifth Street, is a striking landmark, topped by a large bronze sculpture of a fisherman holding a tuna. The 8-foot-tall cast bronze monument was created by sculptors Henry Alvarez and Clete Maffet Shields, and artist Robert Piña, according to the website Public Art in Public Places . Piña attended the rededication ceremony, as did the family of Alvarez.
For many, the monuments are personal — as demonstrated by the crowd that turned out to celebrate the fishing marker’s rededication.
They also tell much of San Pedro’s history.
From the fishing monument’s inscription:
“In 1892, Southern California Fish Corp. was the first cannery in Los Angeles Harbor,” reads the fishing monument’s inscription. “In 1903, a technique of preparing and canning was developed to can sardines, mackerel, bluefin tuna, yellowfin tuna and albacore. In 1912, the first fresh fish market was introduced in San Pedro and along with other markets that followed, they eventually supplied fresh and iced fish throughout our nation.
“Before long, flotillas of purse seine boats were sailing down from northern waters to fish in San Pedro,” the inscription adds. “By 1920, there was a large fleet of fishing boats and methods of fishing such as purse seine, lampara, jig, live bait, gill net, mackerel scoopers and long line boats. Los Angeles Harbor became the largest fishing port in the nation. The fishing industry in San Pedro was originated primarily by European and Asian fishermen, each bringing fishing knowledge from their native lands.”
In 1992, the Fishermen’s Fiesta committee planned to put up a memorial and in 1995, a volunteer committee of descendants and fishermen was formed to plan the project, assisted by then-Los Angeles Councilmember Rudy Svorinich Jr., the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks, and the Cultural Affairs Department.
All of the monuments came about through fundraising efforts in the community that spanned years — and have long served as gathering spots along the town’s waterfront.
Some new names, Pielago said, are now also being added to the restored fishing monument by families tied to the industry in San Pedro.
Helping to fund the restoration was the Port of Los Angeles through a $35,000 grant the group applied for. The entire project, Pielago said, ran an estimated $60,000. (The port also recently sponsored a documentary, “The Smell of Money,” on San Pedro’s fishing history.)
“Kris did a wonderful job; it took her a long time,” said Augie Bezmalinovich, the port’s San Pedro community advocate, referring to Pielago’s work, which included going through boxes of original paperwork and research on the monument’s names, and reaching out to those who worked on the memorial in the 1990s to get information that had vanished from the archives.
The Merchant Marine monument, meanwhile, is now mostly restored and should be completed soon, said Wendy Karnes, president of the Merchant Marine Veterans Association. That group is also replacing bronze with marble.
National Maritime Day, a time when many gather at that landmark memorial, is coming up quickly — May 22. Karnes said she’s hopeful it may be finished (“or close to it”) by then.
“We’re hoping it will be still more beautiful” than it was, she said.
That $25,000 project required a bunch of fundraising and outreach, she said, “so we do have the money to move forward, all through donations.”
With L.A. Fleet Week also coming up on Memorial Day weekend, Karnes said, the newly shined-up monuments — located near the Battleship Iowa Museum ship, where Fleet Week activities are centered — are sure to draw attention.
“These names on these walls are people who died at sea and don’t have any burial site,” Karnes said of the Merchant Marine monument’s significance.
The damage done to a third monument honoring the founder of the ILWU is now repaired as well, said Greg Mitre, president of the ILWU’s Pensioners.
“We replaced two of the medallions that were stolen off of the Harry Bridges bust with another type of material,” Mitre said. “We are so glad the fisherman’s memorial was returned to all its glory. It has an indelible mark in the history of San Pedro and many of the families that help found this great city of ours.”
The union also has an annual event approaching that is held at the Bridges monument. May 15 is the group’s annual “First Blood” gathering to honor those who have lost their lives working on the docks.
The new president of the ILWU Local 13, Mario Medina, will be the keynote speaker. Medina’s father’s name, Mitre said, is among those listed on the granite monument.