Two Votes for Sea Life

Not so many years ago, and with little effort, you could find abalone off the Santa Monica coast. Abalone steak was a common menu item at local seafood eateries, and abalone shell jewelry was a staple of the tourist tschochke trade. No more. Over-harvesting, pollution and other stresses have caused the abalone population to fall so steeply over the past four decades that the Legislature in 1997 barred harvesting statewide to save the remaining stocks.

What happened to abalone is now happening to other fish up and down the coast. The populations of white sea bass, Dover sole and sable fish all have fallen sharply in recent years as commercial fishermen haul in more and younger fish to keep up with the demand.

California’s fisheries policy--rather, the absence of a coherent policy--has not helped. The Legislature has delegated to the Fish and Game Commission and the Department of Fish and Game jurisdiction over recreational fishing within state waters but reserved to itself the power to regulate commercial fishing. It has done a demonstrably lousy job of that.

Two bills up for a final legislative vote this week could vastly improve the picture. AB 1241 and AB 2404 would change state policy by incorporating sustainability as a goal and turn more responsibility over to the experts in the Department of Fish and Game. They would also encourage the collection of more comprehensive data on fish populations and help set sound catch limits on a species-by-species basis, identifying those areas where sea life is so threatened as to deserve protection as a marine reserve.

The new state budget includes funding to begin this work. What’s needed is passage of these prudent measures and the governor’s signature.