Outdoor Notes / Earl Gustkey : Two California Gray Whales Die in Gill Nets

Two California gray whales died in gill nets off Los Angeles County this week, just as organizers of an initiative campaign that would outlaw the nets within 75 miles of the coast are beginning their final drive to qualify for the 1988 state ballot.

“We’ve got 150,000 signatures,” said Ken Kukuda, a Newport Beach magazine publisher who began the drive a year ago. “We need 590,000 signatures, but historically all initiative campaigns that make the ballot get 80% of their signatures in the last 30 to 45 days. Our deadline is April 12.”

County lifeguard spokesmen confirmed the deaths of the two whales, one a young adult about 25 feet long, the other a “15 or 20-foot” juvenile. Both were found off the Palos Verdes-Redondo Beach area, entangled in gill nets.

Pete Wallerstein, Pacific director of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said that identification numbers on the nets that killed the whales had been cut off.

“This happens all the time,” he said. “The gill net fishermen return to their net, find it’s killed a whale, then cut their license ID number off and leave. They know the gray whale is an endangered species and it’s a $1,500 fine for entangling one. We’ve had over 40 whale entanglements off Southern California since 1980, about half of which resulted in dead whales, and not one prosecution.

“The nets are also killing sea birds, seals and dolphins, and it’s getting worse all the time.”

Bill Meistrell Hermosa Beach dive shop owner found the smaller whale Wednesday morning, while taking his boat from Redondo Beach to dry dock in San Pedro.

“It was right in front of our boat,” he said. “It was floating belly up, sea gulls all over it, with a big bunch of net tangled on its tail. It was ripe, it’d been dead for some time.”

Lt. Sonny Vardeman of the Los Angeles County Lifeguard Dept. said his department knew of “about a half-dozen” whale entanglements with gill nets since Nov. 1.

Tony West of San Pedro, vice president of the California Gillnetters Assn., said that his organization has been meeting lately to find ways to reduce whale-net encounters.

“We’re looking at several things, such as a stronger anchoring systems,” he said. “We’re also going to stop setting nets near points during the whale season, moving farther off the coast and coming up with some kind of breakaway panel system, so that a whale would become entangled in only part of a net.

Kukuda’s petition would put an initiative on the ballot outlawing gill nets, trammel nets “or any other entangling net” in ocean waters within 75 miles of the coast.

Two long-term investigations by state game wardens have produced dramatic results.

Last week, after a seven-month undercover operation, wardens arrested 15 people suspected of illegally selling sport-caught fish. Arrests were made in Los Angeles and Imperial counties, and the charges carry maximum penalties of six months in jail and $1,000 fines.

Wardens found evidence of widespread illegal sales of large quantities of corvina, sargo, tilapia, catfish, grass carp, black bass and striped bass to markets in Los Angeles, San Diego and Riverside counties. The fish were taken illegally from the Salton Sea and the New, Alamo and Colorado rivers.

Undercover wardens were able to buy more than 1,000 pounds of the illegal fish on some days, according to the Department of Fish and Game.

Last month, after a 15-month undercover investigation, 34 arrests were made for illegal possession or sale of such species as bear, deer, raccoon, mountain lion and bobcat.

Citizens with information on poaching or other fish and wildlife violations may advise the DFG by calling 1 (800) 952-5400 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

A color shot of a great blue heron has won first prize in the California Fish and Game Commission’s 1986 photography award program for Bev Steveson of Bakersfield.

Steveson will receive a replica of a perpetual trophy that will be displayed in the state Capitol. She will also be invited on a DFG field trip.

“It takes a lot of patience to photograph animals,” Steveson said. “The morning I took the picture of the blue heron, I was sitting near the bushes and he flew near me. I guess I was just lucky that morning.”

Briefly The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet in plenary session March 18-20 at Anchorage, Alaska. . . .Gary Borger, assistant professor of botany at the University of Wisconsin and author of books and articles on fly fishing, will be the speaker at the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers meeting March 19 at the Nob Hill Banquet Center in Panorama City. Reservations may be made by calling (818) 785-7306. . . . Showtime: Anaheim Boat Show, Anaheim Convention Center, March 25-29. . . . Carl Nettleton has resigned as president of the San Diego-based National Coalition for Marine Conservation and a new president is being sought. . . . Bob Kurz was recently elected president of the Balboa Angling Club. . . . The last of San Diego’s “bait boat” fleet could be forced out of business by a new Mexican law that excludes foreign fishermen from the 12-mile territorial limit. . . . Poor weather March 7 forced postponement of the bighorn sheep census in the San Gabriel Mountains. DFG biologists and about 90 volunteers will try again March 21.