State Officials Vow to Redraft Proposal to Ban Commercial Fishing of Croaker

Stung by an adverse ruling by the state office of administrative law, state fish and game officials say they will attempt to redraft an emergency ban on commercial fishing for white croaker off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The prohibition could be imposed if it is changed to conform more closely to the state law authorizing such steps, according to John Smith, chief counsel for the administrative law office.

But although fish and game officials said they plan to submit a revamped proposal, some of them said they doubt the state will wind up with a measure that can be effectively enforced.

“We may as well not write a regulation,” DeWayne Johnston, chief of the state Department of Fish and Game’s wildlife protection division, said Wednesday. “We may not have any ability to enforce.”

On Monday, the office of administrative law rejected a measure proposed by the Fish and Game Department that would have banned commercial white croaker fishing in a three-mile-wide band of state waters from Point Fermin to Point Vicente.

The proposal had been made on the recommendation of state health officials, who cited a recent study showing that white croaker caught off the peninsula carry excessive levels of the pesticide DDT and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

Tons of the cancer-causing chemicals were discharged into the sea south of the peninsula through the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts’ sewage outfalls in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s, contaminating the ocean bottom where white croaker feed.

Based on earlier studies, the state has warned recreational anglers since 1985 not to eat white croaker caught off the peninsula. But no action has been taken to restrict commercial harvesting of the fish--known locally as kingfish and tom cod--even though the sanitation districts have been recommending a ban since 1987.

Smith said the administrative law office rejected the proposed emergency ban, the first step toward a permanent prohibition, because portions of it exceed the scope of the state statute authorizing such emergency measures.

One problem, he said, is that it would ban not only the taking of white croaker from peninsula waters but also its possession, sale or purchase. State law governing the type of ban sought by game and fish officials allows only prohibitions on the taking of a fish, he said.

Another problem is that the proposed ban would target commercially registered fishing boats in addition to commercial fishing license holders. The state law authorizing such bans makes mention only of commercial license holders.

“We felt they went beyond what the statute authorized,” Smith said. He portrayed the problems as mainly technical, however. “If they clean up the language and limit (the ban) to what the statute authorizes them to do, I think they could probably do it.”

At a press conference Tuesday on Santa Monica Pier, supporters of the ban severely criticized the legal office’s decision. State Assemblyman Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) portrayed it as an example of state foot-dragging on the white croaker issue.

The legal office “is being used as some kind of bureaucratic obstacle,” Hayden charged.

Said Dorothy Green, president of the environmental group Heal the Bay: “We’re really dismayed.”

Fish and game officials said they cannot comment in detail on the administrative law office’s objections because they have not yet received them in writing. But they expressed several concerns.

Limiting the ban to the taking of white croaker means enforcement officials may be able to act only if they witness the fish being hauled aboard boats, said Don Schultz, supervisor of the Fish and Game Department’s marine resources division.

If possession were to be included as an infraction, he said, officials might also be able to take action against fishermen found in the area with white croaker aboard.

Johnston said failing to target commercially registered boats is a more serious drawback. Enforcement officials would not be able to check the registration numbers of boats fishing for white croaker off the peninsula and take action against those registered as commercial, he said.

Even if fishermen taking white croaker were to admit that they held a commercial license, Johnston said, they might also be able to get by with an excuse: “A commercial fisherman could say, ‘Hey, I’m sportfishing today.’ ”

Schultz, however, said his agency still hopes it will be able to write an emergency ban that will be acceptable to the administrative law office--and strong enough to stop commercial white croaker fishing in peninsula waters.

“We will be refiling,” he said, predicting that it will take about two weeks for the ban proposal to be redrawn and reconsidered by the administrative law office.

Times Staff Writer Jeff Rabin contributed to this report.