Outdoor Notes : 2 Bills Restricting Use of Gill Nets Become Law

Two bills restricting the use of gill nets off Southern California have been signed into law by Gov. George Deukmejian.

One of them puts a moratorium on the issuance of any new gill net permits in the state. Gill net use by commercial fishermen has nearly tripled since 1981, according to the National Coalition for Marine Conservation. “This bill stops the growth of the gill net fishery in its tracks,” said Carl Nettleton, the coalition’s executive director.

Gill nets have entangled nontargeted fish, sea otters, diving birds and even gray whales.

The bill also requires the Department of Fish and Game to provide a report for the legislature recommending whether a limited entry program is necessary for the gill net fishery, and, if so, how many fishermen should be allowed to participate.

The other new law will require commercial drift gill net shark and swordfish fishermen to stay outside a line 75 miles from the coast from June 1-Aug. 15, and outside a line 25 miles from the coast between Dec. 15-Jan. 31.

The 25-mile closure is designed to provide protection to migrating gray whales. The 75-mile closure is designed to reduce the take of thresher sharks, which state biologists fear have been over-fished in recent years because of the increased popularity of threshers as table fare.

Hunter success was mixed for last weekend’s opening of the deer season in four Southern California zones.

Preliminary reports from the Department of Fish and Game indicate results were encouraging in Zones D13 and parts of D16 and D11, but that returns from D14 were disappointing.

Meanwhile, the DFG anticipates that about 900 hunters will take to the field Nov. 2, opening day of the three-week Colorado River deer season, Zone D12. Most D12 deer, called burro mule deer, are taken in ironwood and palo verde washes south of Blythe.

The World jet-ski competition will be held Oct. 24-27 at Lake Havasu, with a $30,000 purse available for skiers in 23 classes. It’s jet ski racing’s richest event.

White-winged dove hunting season in Mexico will begin Oct. 26, with much of the action expected in the little Sinaloa town of Los Mochis. Some U.S. shotgunners maintain that the Los Mochis and nearby El Fuerte Valley areas provide the best white-winged dove shooting in the world.

In the last 20 years, changes in agricultural practices by area farmers have resulted in the addition of corn, maize, sesame, pea, bean, safflower and wheat crops, all of which attract doves.

Japanese fishermen lose up to 250 nautical miles of gill nets each year in Alaska and other Pacific waters, according to Alaska Magazine. The North Pacific Fishery Mangement Council has started a program to collect information on lost fishing gear, to learn roughly how many marine mammals, fish and birds are killed by lost or discarded commercial fishing gear.

The DFG will conduct a trout raising experiment at Shasta Lake. Yearling trout will be grown in submerged net pens in the water where they are scheduled to be released. Later this month, 20,000 trout will be released into two cages at a Shasta Lake resort.

“If it is successful, it will help alleviate our crowded hatchery pond conditions in the spring and cut down on the crush of fish-hauling trips we have to make,” said Werner Jochimsen, DFG hatchery supervisor.

Briefly About 190,000 deer hunters--10,000 to 12,000 of them Californians--are expected to be in the field Saturday morning for the opening day of Utah’s deer season. . . . The largest private game preserve in California has become the biggest private family hunt club in the state, with the opening this month of the 26,000-acre Laguna Mountain Hunt Club near King City. . . . Jaime Harrison of Sunset Beach caught a 1,102-pound black marlin at Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Oct. 6.