Gill-Net Foes Claim Signature Success

Organizers of a statewide drive to prohibit gill-net fishing say they have collected more than half the 950,000 signatures needed to qualify the issue for the November, 1990, ballot.

Proponents of the initiative to extend a ban on gill-net fishing to Southern California coastal waters said they have more than 500,000 signatures, and they predict that the rest will be gathered by May 6, the deadline to put the measure on the ballot.

Gill nets are narrow-weave devices made of monofilament line that are weighted to extend upright in the water to catch fish by entangling their gills in the meshes. The proposed ban would restrict the use of the nets within three miles of the coast from Point Conception to the Mexican border. Proponents of the measure, including its principal sponsor Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress), say the nets snare not only fish but marine mammals, particularly dolphins and sea lions.

Commercial fishermen and seafood processors, for the most part, oppose the measure, claiming its passage would drive up the price of fresh seafood. They say fishermen will have to venture farther out to sea to catch fish as well as overhaul and equip their boats to make longer voyages.