COUNTYWIDE : County Panel Backs Gill Net Restriction

Orange County officials endorsed a proposal Friday to restrict the use of gill nets along the Southern California coast.

Limits on the use of the fine-mesh nets have long been sought by sport fishermen and environmentalists who claim fish populations are being depleted and marine mammals are being destroyed.

“We have to support our (Orange County’s) own interests,” Supervisor Thomas F. Riley said. “We have more sport fishermen out there (than commercial fisherman), and they (sport fisherman) are saying that through gill netting the fish are being depleted.”

Riley said the action by the county’s Legislative Planning Committee reflected the views of its Sacramento lobbyist, former state Sen. Dennis Carpenter, who “discussed the bill at great length and recommended support.” The committee endorsed the bill without opposition.

Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress) introduced the bill earlier this year. It is awaiting a January hearing in the Assembly’s Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

The bill would restrict the use of gill or trammel nets within a proposed Marine Resources Protection Zone for a specified period of time, except for a certain size net authorized by the California Department of Fish and Game.

The protection zone includes: waters less than 420 feet deep or less than one mile from the Channel Islands; any area within three nautical miles of the mainland or a man-made breakwater between Santa Barbara County and the Mexican Border; waters less than 210 feet deep from Los Angeles County to the south jetty of Newport Harbor.

Allen said the restrictions are needed because gill nets kill thousands of marine mammals--dolphins, sea lions and seals--each year, and imperil the stocks of halibut, white sea bass and other populations through overfishing.

Allen’s bill would also require sport fishermen to buy a $3 stamp--in addition to an $11 fishing license--to fish in saltwater. The $4 million to $5 million Allen expects to be raised by the plan would provide funds for gill net fisherman to purchase alternative fishing gear.

The bill came in response to the growing number of marine mammal and sea bird deaths due to becoming entangled in the woven monofilament nets and is similar to existing laws on Central and Northern California coasts that restrict gill netting.