OUTDOOR NOTES : Mexico Toughens Sportfishing Laws

Mexico, the nearest big-game fishing site for Southern Californians, last week adopted the toughest regulations in the world for protecting a sportfishing resource from commercial exploitation.

According to Fred Hoctor of Western Outdoor News, a law that will be in effect through 1994 will prohibit commercial fishermen from taking marlin, sailfish, swordfish, snook, dorado and roosterfish within 50 miles of any Mexican coastline.

Also, commercial boats must obtain permission from the National Fisheries Institute to target those species inside the 200-mile territorial limit, and foreign long-liners will continue to be excluded from the territorial waters altogether.

The Mexican government considers the Revillagigedo Islands southwest of Cabo San Lucas to be within its territorial waters and hopes the new regulations will permit numbers to return to what they were before the introduction of long-line fishing in the 1950s. The Revillagigedos are considered to be the center of the world’s largest stocks of marlin.

Other new regulations taking effect in mid-April will establish sport limits for several species, including dorado.

Hoctor credited Secretary of Fisheries Lic. Maria de Los Angeles Moreno Uriagas for the new regulations.

The Los Angeles City Department of Water and Power managed to get water running to the Lower Owens River through a makeshift flume in time to avoid rewatering the Owens Gorge and, in effect, re-establishing the historic fishery there.

The gorge was dried up in the ‘50s when water was diverted to a series of three power plants. Fishing interests led by the California Department of Fish and Game and the lobby CalTrout had seen the March 5 break in the eight-foot-diameter pipeline as an opportunity to get the fishery back. By state law, once a fishery is established, it can’t be harmed, and the DWP already was required to supply 100 cubic feet per second to the Lower Owens River below Pleasant Valley Reservoir.

The DWP said it was able to start running 160 c.f.s. down the flume to supply Pleasant Valley at 2:30 a.m. last Saturday, without diverting it into the gorge.

But the DFG and CalTrout aren’t giving up. They note that the flume is not generating anypower.

In a letter to DWP Commission President Mike Gage, CalTrout President Richard May said: “ . . . it may be that you do not have legal authority to divert from the natural bed of the Owens River for nonpower purposes . . . “

May further proposed that the DWP study rewatering the gorge, in lieu of litigation similar to that involving Rush Creek and Mono Lake that the DWP lost.

Eugene Toffoli, the DFG’s legal adviser, wrote a similar letter to Gage’s, requesting the DWP “to restore natural flows immediately to all sections of the river below (the middle power station).”

Toffoli pointed out that diverting water back through the gorge would not affect the volume of Los Angeles’ water supply. Gage received the letters Tuesday and said he had not had time to respond.

Briefly

HUNTING--The Committee to Save Hunting, a coalition of pro-hunting groups with the stated purpose “to defeat the anti-hunting campaigns,” has educational meetings scheduled in Southern California the next three nights at 7--tonight at the Compton Hunting and Fishing Club, 1625 Sportsman Drive in Compton (details: (818) 351-0700), Thursday at Raahauge’s Pheasant Club in Norco (714) 838-0467) and Friday at the San Diego County Fish and Game Assn. (619) 562-8185). The meetings are scheduled to last one hour.

Eight environmental documents prepared by Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologists to support proposals for hunting seasons are available for study at regional offices, including Long Beach, (213) 590-5126. The documents total more than 3,000 pages. The Fish and Game Commission will hear public comment on the proposals April 5 in Sacramento.

WHITEWATER RAFTING--Information provided here last week indicated that the South Fork of the American River was available to run only Tuesday through Thursday of each week. It also is open Saturday and Sunday. Complete information on rafting is available by phoning the Western River Guides Assn. at (800) 552-3625.

BAJA FISHING--Chuy Valdez of hotel Spa Buenavista at the East Cape reports that the striped marlin and dorado bites are improving. Byron Olander of Lakewood released a 140-pounder. The boats are getting 10 to 15 dorado a day, running from 15 to 40 pounds. Schools of yellowfin and skipjack tuna from 20 to 30 pounds are cruising the area, the yellowtail bite remains good, and roosterfish to 53 pounds are starting to show.

FLY-FISHING--The State Department of Water Resources has approved float-tube fishing on several California waters following the lobbying efforts of George Chapman of Woodland Hills, conservation chairman of the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers. The regulations prohibit skin contact with the water and restrict tubes to within 150 feet of shore. The waters involved are Castaic, Pyramid, Silverwood, Perris, San Luis, Del Valle and Oroville lakes and the Upper Feather River. . . . Fly tyer Roy Richardson will return to the East Fork Fly Fishing Store in Irvine Saturday, March 30, at 10 a.m. to give a free slide program on the San Juan and Delores Rivers. . . . Rob Ransom will appear at the Pasadena Casting Club meeting April 11, 7:30 p.m., at the Masonic Temple, 3130 Huntington Drive.