Robson Collins
Department Marine Region
California Department of Fish and Game
20 Lower Ragsdale Drive #100
Monterey, CA 93940

Re: Proposed Commercial Gillnet Regulations

Dear Mr. Collins:

The Marine Mammal Center and its 35,000 members support the adoption of proposed Section 104.1 to Title 14, California Code of Regulations prohibiting the use of gill or trammel nets in water depths less than 60 fathoms in the designated areas.
While this proposed regulation is based on information on the effect of this fishery on common murres and southern sea otters, this order also protects other marine mammals that inhabit shallow waters along the central and northern California coast and are vulnerable to human-caused mortality.

Observer statistics indicate the extensive impact of this gillnet fishery on marine mammals. Estimates by the NOAA Southwest Fisheries Center Monterey Bay Set Gillnet Observer Program of bycatch morality for this fishery in 1999 include 2,359 murres, 1,360 California sea lions, 662 harbor seals and 5 sea otters. For the brief period January 1, 2000 through June 30, 2000, observers recorded the mortality of 24 pinnipeds, 3 cetaceans and 581 common murres.

The NOAA observer program gillnet take statistics include two harbor seal pups monitored by The Marine Mammal Center. Our ongoing study of Pacific harbor seal behavior indicates that newly weaned harbor seals tagged with time-depth recorders (TDR's) were diving at an average approximately 6 fathoms with maximum depths at about 66 fathoms." Therefore this order should protect this age class of harbor seals as well.

Because fishing practices and the distribution of entangled species can change dramatically over time and prior data cannot be used to determine whether this order is sufficiently protective against extensive gillnet entanglement, we also encourage consistent shipboard monitoring of the gillnet fisheries as well as other sound research methods to determine species’ status (including monitoring of beachcast marine mammals and sea birds, aerial surveys to determine species’ distribution, and information on temporal, spatial and geographic patterns of fishing efforts).

In summary, as a direct result of the use of gill nets, not only are threatened and endangered species affected, but also other marine mammals that live in the northern and central California nearshore marine environment. The proposed regulation needs to be enacted and consistent monitoring undertaken to determine the impact of this regulation on protecting sensitive species given variances in fishing practices and distribution of sensitive species over time.

Sincerely,
B. J. Griffin
Executive Director

1 Cameron and Forney, Preliminary Estimates of Cetacean Mortality in California/Oregon Gillnet Fisheries for 1999, NMFS, Southwest Fisheries Service. Table 3.
2 Summary of National Marine Fisheries Service, Monterey Bay Set Gillnet Observer Program, April. 1, 1999-June 30,2000, Data and resulting mortality estimates for marine mammals and seabirds
3 Lander, unpublished data.
4 Central California Gillnet Effort and Bycatch of Sensitive Species, 1990-1998, Karen A. Forney/NMFS et al.


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