A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
September 2, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Biologists launch effort to clean up lost fishing gear off California
EFFORTS TARGET YEARS' WORTH OF FISHING GEAR
By
Millions of pounds of old fishing gear — a junkyard of abandoned nets, hooks, lobster traps, crab pots and miles of plastic line — litter California's coastal waters and are taking a significant toll on marine wildlife.
Starting this fall, in an underwater version of the state's coastal cleanup program, teams of scuba divers will launch an unprecedented effort to start cleaning it up.
On Thursday, the state Wildlife Conservation Board awarded a $400,000 grant to the University of California-Davis to fund its "California Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Program."
Under the program, crews will spend the next two years cleaning lost fishing line and hooks from dozens of public piers from
"One of the problems is that we can't see below the surface. When people hear about the problems the oceans are facing, it's hard to visualize. They would be surprised how much debris comes out of the ocean," said Kirsten Gilardi, a veterinarian with the
Modeled after similar projects in
After years of worrying about oil spills, environmental groups and biologists increasingly are turning their attention to old fishing gear as a potentially fatal wildlife menace.
A five-year survey of wildlife rescue groups completed in 2006 found more than 100 sea lions and nearly 1,000 brown pelicans and gulls were treated for injuries after becoming entangled in fishing gear along the California coast.
Many die. Biologists have found dead sea otters with hooks perforating their intestines. Even animals at the top of the food chain are affected.
"In March we did a necropsy on a 51-foot sperm whale that washed up dead at
Meanwhile, a bill by state Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, that would require commercial fishermen to report lost gear within 48 hours, and for the state to track it in a database, has made it to the governor's desk.
The litter comes from several sources. Commercial fishing boats can snag nets on underwater rocks, or lose crab pots when winter storms snap tether lines.
And every weekend, recreational anglers catch their lines and hooks on wooden pilings, or accidentally drop equipment off boats and piers.
"A lot of these hooks still have bait on them," said Jennifer Renzullo, field manager of the UC-Davis program.
"Almost every pier I've worked on has dead birds tangled underneath. They'll dive in the water to eat fish or hang out in the rafters under the pier. And a lot of time what they think is a fish is really a hook that has been baited."
Fishing line also tangles boat propellers. Surfers are injured running into lost gear and hooks. And debris can snap and damage new fishing nets.
In addition to the new funding, the gear removal project also has received $85,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and $20,000 from private foundation grants. Much of the money will be used to hire sea urchin divers and commercial salvage divers to do the underwater work. The debris is hauled to landfills. In some cases, when owners can be identified, the traps will be returned to fishermen.
The program also plans to set up public outreach programs at bait shops, and to organize groups of volunteers to "adopt" the dozens of piers in the state and regularly remove fishing gear around them.
As part of a pilot program in 2005, the UC-Davis team cleaned up 49,000 acres of seafloor around the
Many commercial fishing groups want to help recover gear. Crab traps can cost $200 each, said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.
"Our crab guys have been talking about it. We do have a problem out there with lost gear," Grader said. "Sometimes it's people just not being very careful. Other times it's accidents. Last year we had a vicious storm off
http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_10348182?nclick_check=1
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