Outdoor Notes : Fishermen Claim Oil Rigs Would Replace Sea Otters

The West Coast’s largest organization of commercial fishermen has charged that a plan by the Department of the Interior to move part of the California sea otter herd from central California to San Nicolas Island in the Channel Islands is intended to open the central California coast for offshore oil and gas development.

Said Zeke Gryder, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations: “When you consider the objections that have been raised before to drilling the central coast between Morro Bay and Half Moon Bay, and you look at who now supports moving otters, it’s obvious to us the motive is to put rigs offshore at Big Sur, Monterey Bay and the San Mateo coast, and not to protect otters.”

The California sea otters, once near extinction and now listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act, number about 1,400.

The Department of Interior’s U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to move as many as 250 otters to San Nicolas Island in an attempt to establish a new colony that might not be vulnerable to the dangers of a major oil spill along the central coast.

Commercial and sport fishermen are worried that the rich shellfish fishing grounds at San Nicolas and perhaps some of the other Channel Islands will be lost if an otter colony flourishes there. The otters forage on shellfish and need to eat approximately one-third of their body weight daily to maintain proper body temperature.

The Department of Fish and Game has recommended approval of the plan to move the otters but is seeking safeguards to assure that they do not expand their range at the expense of Southern California fisheries.

A hearing before the California Coastal Commission on the final environmental impact statement regarding the move, is scheduled for July 7.

The golden trout fishing season opens Wednesday in the Cottonwood Creek drainage system, about 30 miles southwest of Lone Pine in Inyo County.

Part of the six-lake chain, Cottonwood lakes 5 and 6, and several other lakes and streams in the drainage will be open to fishing through Oct. 31 with a five-fish limit.

Only artificial lures with single barbless hooks are allowed.

Cottonwood lakes 1, 2, 3 and 4 are the source of pure-strain golden trout used to stock other high-altitude lakes in the Sierra and they and their tributaries remain closed to fishing year-round.

Other golden trout waters in the Cottonwood drainage system include Cirque Lake, Muir Lake, High Lake, Long Lake, Lower and Middle South Fork lakes, Cottonwood Creek and Little Cottonwood Creek.

Briefly The Department of Fish and Game, which reported last week that it will propose a limited hunt for Tule Elk in early 1988, has issued a correction, saying that a decision to propose such a hunt won’t be made until early next year. . . . Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) has introduced a bill that would make it unlawful to apply any anti-fouling paint containing tributytltin (TBT) on any marine or freshwater vessel, dock, pier or structure within navigable waters, because of environmental damage believed to be caused by the chemical. . . . Showtime: American Boating Jubilee ’87 at the Shoreline Village Marina, Long Beach, noon to 8 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekends.