DFG to Use DNA to Catch Poachers

Deer poachers might soon find it a whole lot easier to land in hot water.

The Department of Fish and Game, after 20 years of research by forensics experts, announced that it has become the first wildlife agency in the country to develop the technology to use DNA analysis in its never-ending fight against poachers.

“Commercial poaching is a $100-million-a-year business in California,” says Terry Mansfield, chief of the department’s wildlife management division, “and these new techniques can be used to support our officers and assist the department in the important law enforcement component of our deer management program.”

Fred Cole, deputy chief of the wildlife protection division of the DFG, added, “In my career here, this is the most significant breakthrough in fish and wildlife law enforcement. We have the capability now to identify a specific animal.”

Which means a drop of blood or a patch of fur, or any other part of a deer carcass found in the field or on someone’s property, can now be used as evidence against those thought to be involved in the illegal taking of deer.

A recent demonstration for game wardens by the DFG’s wildlife forensics laboratory proved 100% accurate. The lab used samples from 10 deer from 10 different locations, cutting the samples in half and moving them around, then matching them through DNA analysis.

The first case to be prosecuted by the DFG involving the technology is pending. According to a department news release, late last year a warden got a tip that a suspect had slaughtered a doe, which is illegal, and had the meat stowed in his freezer.

When the warden arrived at the suspect’s house, he was denied access to the freezer, but found a clump of what appeared to be deer hair and spots of blood in the yard. They were collected and sent to the lab, where it was determined that the hair and blood stains indeed came from a doe.

A search warrant was obtained, evidence was gathered and the suspect was nabbed. The DNA results, it is hoped, will prove that the hair and blood found in the yard once belonged to the venison in the freezer.

The DFG is hoping to eventually use that technology with other animals that are subject to frequent poaching or are involved in attacks on humans.

CENTER STAGE

Michael Fowlkes Productions recently won top honors at the 19th annual Telly Awards competition for its two-part miniseries, “Sea of Dreams,” produced for Fox Sports West by Inside Sportfishing.

The Telly Awards honor top non-network commercials, films and video productions.

“Sea of Dreams,” filmed on location at Hotel Palmas de Cortez in Baja California’s East Cape region, features mesmerizing underwater footage of marlin and dorado working enormous schools of baitfish into tightly grouped, swirling masses, as well as excellent footage of the fantastic fishing in the area.

Surely what clinched the Telly Award for Fowlkes, though, was a scene involving a fisherman struggling to gain an edge against an unusually large striped marlin, sweating up a storm under the brutal Baja sun, on a boat that had developed engine trouble immediately after the hookup and was dead in the water.

I’m a little biased though. I was that fisherman, and Fowlkes must have done a tremendous job of editing that segment because I’m pretty sure that much of what I said during the hourlong fight wasn’t fit for morning television. I did get the billfish to the boat, though, then watched it swim wearily away after the deckhand turned it loose in keeping with the hotel’s catch-and-release philosophy.

“Sea of Dreams” can be ordered on videotape through Michael Fowlkes Productions at (714) 497-3031.

THE JOURNEY HOME

Nearly two years after setting sail from San Diego, after a dramatic rescue at sea off the Falkland Islands and seemingly endless periods of being blown about by gale-force winds, Karen Thorndike has rounded her fifth and final great cape and is on the homestretch.

And should she complete the final, 9,000-mile leg of her journey from New Zealand to San Diego, she will become the first American woman to solo-circumnavigate the globe in a sailboat without cheating--i.e., taking the equatorial route through the canals.

How does it feel to finally have light at the end of the tunnel?

“My feelings are a bit mixed,” Thorndike said in a recent phone interview from Dunedin, New Zealand, after surviving treacherous winds beyond Southwest Cape. “I’m glad to have rounded the final cape, which turned out to be the hardest. But I realize, too, that the end is in sight and, gosh, in some ways I wish it wasn’t going to end.”

Thorndike, 55, of Seattle, hopes to pull into San Diego, after stops in Tahiti and Hawaii, in July or August.

TITANIC DEVELOPMENT

The seaside Mexican party town of Rosarito Beach now has more than bars, hotels and and nearby lobster restaurants to lure tourists. It has the Titanic Museum, having been headquarters for the filming of the epic drama, which won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture, at last month’s Academy Awards.

But the bustling community 20 miles south of the border is on its way to hosting actual cruise ships instead of mere props. Developers broke ground recently on a 600-slip marina project that is expected to be completed some time around the turn of the century.

Not only will it include shops and a pier and accommodate cruise ships, it also will be home port to a sportfishing fleet that will have fast access to the popular Coronado Islands and offshore tuna grounds.

It will be interesting to see whether that fleet will be able to compete with San Diego’s state-of-the-art vessels that target the same fish in the same waters, or whether the Mexican government will try to impose restrictions on the San Diego fleet to assist the fledgling Mexican fleet at Rosarito Beach.

Stranger things have happened, as San Diego landing operators are well aware.

BEATING AROUND THE BUSH

“Eco-Challenge Australia,” a made-for-TV extreme outdoor competition in which teams raced 300 miles through rain forests, down raging rivers, up mountains and over shallow coral reefs on foot, horseback, canoes and ocean kayaks across and beyond Australia’s notoriously wild Outback last August, will be shown April 19-21 on the Discovery Channel.

We won’t reveal the winner, but it wasn’t New York’s finest. A team of NYPD officers finished last among 48 teams from 15 countries. Nor was it the vaunted U.S. Navy SEALs. That team had to be rescued from the Coral Sea during the final stage and failed to complete the course. The driving force behind one of the American teams that did finish (we won’t say where): an exotic dancer.

HOT BITES

* Local: Paul Strausser, skipper of the Monte Carlo out of 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro, reports that the yellowtail bite is back on, five miles out, with fish 10-20 pounds biting almost exclusively on irons fished at 100 feet-plus. Most of the local fleet has resumed morning and afternoon half-day trips. “But it’s definitely a morning bite,” Strausser says.

A fairly unusual barracuda bite inside Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor that began last weekend--anglers were able to catch the Long Beach Grand Prix while reeling in fish--is still in progress, says James Tani at Long Beach Sportfishing. “The Southern Cal has 100 barracuda on the boat right now, so now he’s going out to try for the yellowtail,” Tani said early Thursday afternoon.

Yellowtail counts have been ranging 20-50 per boat.

* Cabo San Lucas: Houston angler Tony Jones caught the biggest fish of the week, a 225-pound blue marlin aboard a Solmar boat. Striped marlin remain the prevalent catch, though, and the bite picked up this week. The top boats are returning flying three or four marlin flags, and the average is about one billfish per boat per day. Patches of green water won’t help the marlin bite, but they might lead to an increase in swordfish activity.

* East Cape: A group of Santa Clara firemen held a tournament at Palmas de Cortez last week and 76 anglers caught and released 44 striped marlin, two blue marlin and two sailfish on the first day and a total of 16 billfish on the second day, when the northerly winds picked up. The winds should be subsiding about now, and the striped marlin fishing should get better by the week. Palmas de Cortez can be reached through Baja Fishing and Resorts at (800) 368-4334. Ronnie Kovach’s Eagle Claw four-day fishing schools at Hotel Buenavista Beach Resort began this week and are held periodically through the summer. Details: (714) 840-6555.

* Mazatlan: Geronimo Cevallos of the Aries Fleet says there are sailfish everywhere, but adds that they’re reluctant to bite. That isn’t too disconcerting, however, because fishermen have their hands full with yellowfin tuna. Cevallos’ customers bagged 282 tuna up to 77 pounds this week. There are some dorado in the area as well. The largest taken was a 45-pounder. The Aries Fleet can be contacted through Cortez Yacht Charters in Lemon Grove at (619) 469-4255.

HIGH NOON

Tom “Tutler” Filbeck will try to defend his top-gun world championship during Colt’s End of Trail Cowboy Shootout and Wild West Jubilee April 23-26 at Raahauge’s Ranch in Norco. The annual event is the nation’s oldest and largest cowboy action-shooting competition. More than 500 competitors are expected to vie for the World Championship of Cowboy Action Shooting. The festival is also billed as a celebration of the cowboy lifestyle. Details: (714) 998-0209.

AND FINALLY

More than $3.5 million was raised recently during the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep’s annual auction in Reno. High bid was $405,000 paid by one hunter for a rare permit to hunt a Rocky Mountain bighorn in the Canadian province of Alberta.

For that kind of money, he had better be a good shot.