Fisheries Using Nets That Kill Whales Targeted

Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) has asked the state Department of Fish and Game to order an emergency closure of all gill and trammel net fisheries along the entire California migratory route of the endangered gray whale.

Allen, who has been critical of the department’s management in the past, wrote in her letter Tuesday to Director Peter F. Bontadelli that four migrating gray whales have become snared in fishing nets since March 10.

There have been eight such snarings this year. One whale died after it became entangled in a net near Los Angeles Harbor on March 17.

Bontadelli could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Allen wrote that the four incidents occurred despite legislation enacted last year barring use of gill nets in specified areas along the California coast during the whales’ 12,000-mile round trip from the Bering Sea to Baja California from late December through April.

The latest incident occurred Monday when a 30-foot gray whale was tangled in a gill net about 1 1/2 miles off Seal Beach. It freed itself after struggling in the net for several hours.

Allen, sponsor of two bills pending before the legislature seeking further restrictions on the use of gill and trammel nets, wrote that the Federal Endangered Species Act does not allow for exceptions in the killing of gray whales.

The nets are made of nylon and catch a wide variety of fish.

Because the whales are a federally designated endangered species, Allen said, Bontadelli can use emergency powers to protect them by closing down the fisheries that use such nets “until the whales are safely out of the area.”

However, Bill Maxwell, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game, said that the director’s emergency powers to shut down fisheries that employ the nets are limited and that none of those powers relate to marine mammals in Southern California.