OUTDOOR NOTES : DFG Busts Two Local Bait Boats for Catching Squid

For a change, local sportfishermen who can’t get enough live bait for a run of yellowtail are directing their frustration not at the bait haulers but at the state Department of Fish and Game.

Four DFG wardens aboard a King Harbor patrol boat busted two bait boats for taking squid near the Redondo Beach pier last Thursday night. They confiscated their two-ton catch and, ignoring pleas from seven or eight nearby sportfishing boats, sold it to commercial packers in San Pedro.

According to Gordon Cribbs, the DFG’s chief of patrol for the region, Section 8780 of the Fish and Game Code prohibits taking more than an 18% incidental catch of squid with the usual anchovies in District 19-A of Santa Monica Bay.

Two boats run by Bill Verna of San Pedro--the Pacific Scout and Chove Clipper--were cited for the misdemeanor violations. The penalty: a fine of up to $500 or as much as six months in jail on each count. Verna’s nets also were confiscated, then released on $10,000 bond.

Cribbs’ case is that his people were only doing their job: enforcing the law.

Verna’s case is that he was only doing his job: getting bait for his customers, which he has been doing for 40 years. He is the sole provider for landings from Seal Beach to San Pedro.

Of course, Verna knew the law, but it’s a law that has been so inconsistently enforced that it was easy to ignore. Other boats had come and gone with squid that same night, and many other nights recently.

Jim Peterson, Verna’s partner in the Sportking at L.A. Harbor Sportfishing, said: “We were all in the area. The sportfishing boats need it, and that’s the only place.”

Peterson says the squid currently are so abundant that 500 or 600 scoops from a bait hauler is not a serious impact. He and Russ Izor, who owns the boat First String, suggest it’s time to take a good look at the law. They think it should be on the sportfishermen’s side.

State Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) brings his Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildlife to Los Angeles next Monday for the second annual Natural Diversity Forum. Subject: “Saving California’s Wildlife Communities: Action for 1991.”

The purpose, a committee spokeswoman said, is to gather information and viewpoints from representatives of government agencies and wildlife lobbies so the committee can chart a course.

It will not be a debate on hunting--although the subject might come up.