Gill Net Foes See Ruling as Victory

Three years after voters approved an initiative outlawing gill nets in California waters, commercial fishermen have been ordered to pull their nets from the sea, the measure’s boosters announced Friday.

Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress), author of the 1990 ballot measure, said a San Diego County Superior Court judge rejected pleas this week by fishermen for a temporary reprieve from the ban, which took effect Jan. 1.

Allen and other backers of Proposition 132, which sought to protect sea lions and other marine mammals that become snagged in the nets, predicted they would win when a legal challenge by gill net fishermen goes to trial April 1 in San Diego.

“The nets are out of the water, and for that we are very, very happy,” Allen declared during a Capitol press conference. “This is a great day for marine mammals.”

But fishing industry officials said the fight is far from over, confidently predicting that the ruling Thursday by Judge Arthur W. Jones does not presage the outcome of the trial.

“I don’t see what he said yesterday as having much bearing on what he’ll decide in two months,” said Peter H. Flournoy, attorney for the gill net fishermen. “We’ll ultimately prevail.”

The fishermen contend the proposition’s boosters have consistently overstated the effect of gill nets on dolphins, sea lions and whales in an effort to camouflage their true aim: to clear the ocean of the commercial fleet so sports anglers have a free run of the seas.

“Essentially what the sports fishermen want is their own playground in Southern California without commercial competition,” said Diane Plescher, manager of the California Seafood Council.

In the meantime, she said, consumers will be hurt by the ban, which will eliminate 4 million pounds of fish annually--30% of the local catch that goes to market. The ban will virtually eliminate locally caught California halibut, white sea bass, near-shore shark, barracuda, yellowtail and white croaker.

To meet the demands, fish will be shipped from Mexico, where gill nets are still used, Plescher said. “The irony of this whole thing is it’s putting our small independent fisherman out of business, yet the public will continue to demand white tablecloth species like halibut and white bass.”

Shortly after voters approved the proposition, state officials counted about 500 gill net fishermen in California. Today, the number stands at about 100--and now those fishermen are being forced out of California waters while they await outcome of the trial.

While commercial fishermen contend marine mammal populations in California waters are healthy and expanding in size, the proposition’s boosters argue that many species are only now beginning to re-establish themselves after severe declines. During 1986-87, state Fish and Game officials counted more than 6,000 sea lions and harbor seals caught in nets.

They also argue that the gill nets were stripping shallow coastal waters of many types of fish that eventually would have disappeared had not the proposition intervened. Of the fish snagged in the nets, 70% have no commercial or economic value because of their size or type, they contend.

“I have seen our ocean decline from one of the world’s premier fishing grounds to what it is now--a desert,” said Michael Von Quilich of the San Diego Rod & Reel club.