Record Amount Spent on Hunting, Fishing Fees in ’84

Americans spent a record $552 million last year on hunting and fishing licenses and permit fees, even though the total number of license-holders dropped. The figures were released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Total license holders dropped from 45.5 million in 1983 to 45 million in 1984, the figures show. Annual fluctuations aren’t unusual, however. Weather patterns, changes in state hunting and fishing regulations and the economy all affect total license sales.

Fees collected by the government from hunters and fishermen are used, along with other federal funds, to reimburse states for up to 7% of the costs of running certain fish and wildlife management programs.

The crossbow has been added to the list of legal methods by which California hunters can take upland game birds, the Fish and Game Commission ruled at its recent Avalon meeting.

According to the newly adopted 1985-86 hunting regulations, the crossbow is legal for use in the general firearms season, but not for the archery seasons.

For the third straight year, the state’s sage grouse season was canceled because of poor sage grouse reproduction in Inyo and Mono counties.

The National Coalition for Marine Conservation says several illegal fishing operations may be occurring off San Diego’s coast but that the lack of a suitable patrol boat by the Department of Fish and Game means the cases can’t be investigated.

DFG game warden Rod Shackleford says he’s heard reports of illegal shark-swordfish gill net operations at the Cortes and Tanner Banks, as well as an illegal abalone operation at San Clemente Island. He also reports the DFG’s only patrol vessel in San Diego is being repaired, and that even if it were fit, both reported violations are occurring beyond its 35-mile range.

The coalition is asking the DFG to transfer a patrol boat in Monterey with a longer range to San Diego.

Work will begin this month to raise the concrete lining of the California Aqueduct in the Antelope Valley, the Department of Water Resources has announced. The 21-mile-long job will take eight months and will require temporary closures of some bikeway and fishing sites.

A Mono County trout stream, ByDay Creek, was closed to fishing recently because of excessive angler pressure on the stream’s Lahontan cutthroat trout.

Briefly The Department of Boating and Waterways cautions vacation-bound boat owners that many state reservoirs have dropping water levels and that some launch ramps are becoming unusable. . . . Eighteen California teams are entered in the Hawaiian International Billfish Tournament, which will begin in Kona Monday. The Los Angeles Billfish Club team is headed by Dr. Sanbo Sakaguchi. . . . The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says revised draft master plans for the Kern and Pixley National Wildlife Refuges are available for public review at a number of public libraries and at the refuge manager’s office in Delano. . . . James Manning Jr. was the grand winner of the recent West Shores Kids Corvina Derby at the Salton Sea with an 18-pound 3-ounce orangemouth corvina. . . . Showtime: Don Bullock’s Anaheim Gun Show, Anaheim Convention Center, Saturday.