Outdoor Notes : Ballot Initiative to Ban Gill Net Fails to Qualify

The battle between environmentalists and commercial fishermen over the use of gill nets in waters along the California coast apparently will rage for at least another year.

An attempt by the Committee to Ban Gill Nets to put a constitutional initiative on the ballot this year failed when it got an insufficient number of signatures to qualify for the ballot, but another attempt is under way for 1988.

Jeff Nadler, president of the Alliance for Resource Management, announced this week that his organization has joined the Committee to Ban Gill Nets “to review and refine the old gill net initiative into a new and more effective initiative that can be supported by sportsmen and environmental groups across the state.”

The ARM describes itself as “a coalition of concerned citizens representing salt and fresh water recreational fishermen and clubs, scuba divers and diving clubs.”

Said Assemblywoman Doris Allen, ARM vice president: “There are many locations where the use of gill nets is inappropriate. One prime example is our inshore marine environment, which provides critical spawning and nursery grounds and foraging habitat for the replenishment of our ocean resources. It is crucial that the use of . . . commercial gear such as gill nets be banned from these vital inshore marine areas if we are to ensure the long-term productivity of our marine resources.”

That, of course, did not sit well with the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, which vowed to continue fighting for “sane fisheries policy . . . including the defeat of this half-baked initiative.”

The PCFFA also referred to the continuing initiative effort as “more craziness from a fringe element of wealthy Southern California sport fishermen who want the Pacific as their private playground.”

The PCFFA acknowledged that there has been considerable controversy over gill nets because of problems with the incidental taking of marine birds and mammals but Zeke Grader, the organization’s executive director, said: “When there have been problems, fishermen have worked together with responsible environmental and sportfish organization agencies to deal with legitimate resource issues.

“As a result of these efforts . . . there have been a number of bills developed in the legislature to close problem areas along the California coast and fishermen have cooperated with conservation groups to keep nets out of whale migration routes.”

The California Fish and Game Commission will consider the adoption of emergency regulations to temporarily close the San Gabriel River to trout fishing at its meeting next weekend in Newport Beach.

The Department of Fish and Game has recommended the closure, effective June 1, because sparse rainfall has resulted in low water that may impose extra stress on trout in the catch-and-release stream. The closing would affect the west fork of the river and its tributaries in the Angeles National forest until water conditions are better.

Briefly Regional Director Rolf Wallenstrom of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says that the service is looking into habitat protection priorities on the Sacramento River between Colusa and Red Bluff. . . . Steven Alan Burres, 30, the last of four Eureka men cited last February for killing a doe out of season, has been fined $880 after pleading guilty to illegally possessing a deer. Total fines in the case amounted to more than $3,500. . . . For the fourth time in nine years, a California artist has won the Nevada Organization for Wildlife’s state duck stamp art contest. Sherrie Russell, 36, of Mount Shasta won with her painting of a pair of bufflehead ducks, which will be reproduced as the Nevada state duck stamp for 1987-88. Russell’s painting of a pair of cackling geese was featured on California’s 1986 stamp. . . . The first edition of the Western Sierra Hiking Guide for serious hikers, backpackers and mountaineers is available, at $9.95, postpaid, from Trailhead Shuttle Service, 340 S. Webster St., Independence, Calif., 93526. . . . Showtime: Southern California Marine Assn. Spring Boat Show, today through May 17, Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, Pomona; Art’s Saltwater Tackle Show and Seminar, May 17, Sabre-Seastrike facility, 17100 Keegan Ave., Carson, no admission charge.