The State - News from March 24, 1988

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 wrote department director Peter F. Bontadelli that four gray whales have become snared in fishing nets since March 10, while migrating along the Southern California coast. One of the whales died near Los Angeles Harbor on March 17. Bontadelli could not be reached for comment. In her letter, Allen noted that the four incidents occurred despite recent legislation prohibiting the use of gill nets in specified areas along the coast during the whales’ annual 12,000-mile round-trip coastal trek from the Bering Sea to the warm waters off Baja California.