All in the Same Boat : Oxnard: A fishing expedition helps police officers and La Colonia teen-agers find common ground at sea.

By FRED ALVAREZ

Dec. 15, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

There was a friendly contest Monday between an Oxnard policeman and a barrio teen-ager aboard a big, blue-and-white fishing boat called the Gentleman.

With schools of rock cod scooting silently through the sea, Officer Scott Hebert dropped a baited hook in the waters off Anacapa Island and bet that he could catch more fish than David Gonzalez.

The two had met before, while Hebert was patrolling the La Colonia neighborhood where the 16-year-old lives.

But now they were on equal footing: a couple of novice fishermen.

When the boat returned to Channel Islands Harbor, after David had caught half a dozen fish to Hebert’s two, they shook hands and slapped each other on the back.

“Good seeing you,” the policeman said.

“You too,” the teen-ager replied.

If Hebert and David are any indication, Monday’s fishing expedition did what it was supposed to do. Aimed at bridging a widening communications gap, the trip matched seven police officers with 25 La Colonia youngsters in a daylong hunt for big fish.

Instead of guns, the officers carried pliers to snip and tie fishing lines.

Instead of the tension that sometimes exists between lawmen and teens, the officers helped the youngsters learn a little about fishing and a lot about a world outside their crime-choked barrio.

“I didn’t like cops, but I had never been around them,” David said. “But now that I’ve been around them, some of them are pretty cool.”

La Colonia neighborhood leader Carlos Aguilera and Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt conceived the idea, and Cisco Sportfishing donated the use of the Gentleman, worth about $1,000 for the day. Crew members and officers donated their time.

“It’s a hell of an idea,” said Jack Ward, owner of the Oxnard-based fishing company. “This kind of thing should be tried all over the world.”

Hurtt and Councilman Andres Herrera rode to the mouth of the harbor with the youngsters before transferring to a second boat and returning to shore.

“There’s a whole new world on the other side of the tracks,” Herrera told the group, referring to the railroad line that separates La Colonia from the rest of Oxnard. “I lived in the Colonia all of my life, and I wish I would have gotten the kind of experiences that you are going to get today.”

A couple of playful sea lions followed the boat out to sea, and half an hour into the voyage, two killer whales were sighted off the starboard bow.

“It’s an omen,” Aguilera told the youngsters.

A few minutes later, his daughter, Marcie, pulled the first fish from the blue-green depths of the Pacific. The pinkish rock cod was the first of more than 100 one- to three-pounders caught Monday. The fish, which were cleaned and fileted on board, were given to the youngsters as they left the ship.

At the front of the boat, a group of teens pulled out fish after fish, sometimes two on a line.

“You guys are animals!” Officer Vince Otani told the youngsters, helping them reset their lines. “Man, I’ve got animals on the bow.”

Eleven-year-old Peter Beltran said he knows that there are problems between some officers and some young people in La Colonia, but he is friendly with the officers he meets.

And on Monday, they helped him land one of the biggest catches of the day. “They said they were going to help me catch a big one and they did,” he said.

Aguilera said the fishing trip went a long way toward erasing stereotypes the officers and teens had about each other.

“They left that stuff at the dock,” Aguilera said. “We absolutely need to be able to get along not only in La Colonia, but all over the city.”