Pete Thomas Outdoors

License required to fish outside California waters?

In support of the California Department of Fish and Game and its effort to keep hunters and anglers informed, Pete Thomas Outdoors, on Thursday or Friday, posts marine biologist Carrie Wilson's weekly California Outdoors Q&A column:

Question: A group of friends and I are planning to take a trip on their yacht, basically sailing up and down the coast and visiting some of the small islands along the way. A couple of us like to fish but aren’t sure of what regulations will apply to us if we’re fishing outside of state waters. Do we have to have a fishing license if we are fishing more than three miles from shore? I’ve heard something about the coastal three nautical mile limit but want to be sure we have our ducks lined up before we launch. Thanks for your help. (Randi L.)

Answer: Yes. California sport fishing licenses are required even when fishing outside of California waters if the vessel you’re fishing from is registered in California, or if your trip either begins or ends in California waters.

The only time you will not need a California license is if your boat is not registered in California and your trip originates in another state or country, and you never come into California waters to fish or to conduct commerce (e.g. purchase fuel, food or other goods.) This includes the offshore islands that are considered a part of California (e.g. Farallon Islands, Channel Islands, etc.)

In addition, species that are illegal to possess in California are also generally prohibited from being imported into California. Fish and wildlife cannot be imported into California unless legally taken and possessed outside of the state (Fish and Game Code, section 2353).

Q: What is the most responsible way to manage cat litter? Because of  wildlife disease impacts from cat feces, biodegradable forms of cat litter disposal may be a bad idea if they are composted on site. Yet, loads of litter in plastic bags in our overburdened landfills is not a good thing either. We know that keeping cats indoors is the best thing to do for wildlife (the number of birds and lizards killed by house cats each year is staggering AND outdoor cats defecate where feces can enter the ecosystem), but it’s hard to know how best to deal with litter. Any advice? I’m stumped… and I have an indoor cat I want to be responsible about caring for it! (Becky S.)

In Oregon, call of the wild begins with howling wolf pup

 

The reintroduction (and proliferation) of wolves throughout the West has been controversial, largely because of threats to livestock.

But the animals themselves are incredible predators and many might appreciate the accompanying video, which shows communication among the Snake River pack in Oregon.

A biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife filmed the pup initiating the process with a cry from the Summit Ridge area.

An answer comes after the third howl and soon other members of the pack are responding from the darkened woods.

According to the ODFW, wolf howls can be heard for several miles.

Pelicans to blame for murre deaths along Oregon coast

The mystery surrounding the deaths of hundreds of murres that have been washing ashore this week on an Oregon beach has been solved: pelicans are to blame.

At least 300 murres have been counted along three miles of Agate Beach, with many more believed to be dead in the water.

 

Rob Suryan, an Oregon State University professor, told KATU that on Monday night, a large group of brown pelicans landed at a nearby murre colony, where thousands of adult murres were raising their chicks.

Suryan explained that many chicks plopped into the ocean because of this disruption or were consumed by pelicans.

Suryan described this as a natural event, although he had not seen it on this scale, but offered a grim assessment regarding this year's crop of chicks. "It's going to be a near failure this year," he said.

Powerful Hurricane Emilia issues 'cold stare' to NASA satellite

As Hurricane Emilia churns to the west off Mexico as a Category 4 storm, NASA reports that its Aqua satellite has measured cloud tops surrounding Emilia's eye to be colder than minus-94 degrees Fahrenheit.

The report referred to the phenomenon as a "cold stare." The readings mean the clouds are reaching high into the troposphere and boast extremely powerful thunderstorms.

Emilia, seen at right as viewed from NASA's Terra satellite, had featured sustained winds of 140 mph but on Tuesday morning winds had dropped to 130 mph.

The hurricane, which on Tuesday morning was located 685 miles south-southwest of Baja California's tip, is following on a path similar to that of its predecessor, Daniel (now a tropical storm).

Daniel on Tuesday was located 1,350 miles east of the Hawaiian Islands, which has prompted the National Hurricane Center to issue advisories for Hawaii.

Waiting in the wings, off southern Mexico, is System 98E, which on Tuesday was predicted to have a 50% chance of developing into a tropical cyclone.

-- Image is via NASA's Terra satellite

Warden finds marijuana, drug-running boat near Morro Bay

Last Sunday about 180 bales of marijuana, weighing about four tons, were discovered floating off Dana Point.

On Thursday a Department of Fish and Game warden found a 30-foot skiff on the beach north of Morro Bay, and after following footprints in the sand he discovered 22 bales of marijuana (pictured).

Interestingly, in the first discovery, about 15 miles offshore, a boat was not found. Could the skiff -- a panga like those used by Mexican fishermen -- be the same vessel that lost the four tons of pot?

Perhaps not. That might have been too large a load to fit onto a 30-foot boat.

But inside the panga were several barrels containing more than 400 gallons of fuel for the outboard engines, and between Sunday and Thursday the speedy vessel, conceivably, could have made it to Central California.

In any event, it seems there's a lot of drug-running going on these days off California, so boaters and fishermen should be alert.

The panga was discovered at the northern boundary of the Piedras Blancas Marine Protected Area (MPA) within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Police from several agencies searched the area, using dogs and all-terrain vehicles, but did not round up any suspects. They are still investigating.

-- Image showing helicopter and bales of marijuana discovered off Central California is courtesy of the DFG

Alligator had taste for baseballs, lures, rocks and much more

A 13-foot alligator captured this week in a park pond on South Carolina's Hilton Head Island must have been suffering from a severe case of indigestion.

Inside the gator's stomach were a soccer ball, 53 fishing lures, several lead sinkers, two baseballs, a tennis ball and two other balls that were partially digested and impossible to identify.

That's just the sports equipment. There also was a smaller alligator, two turtles, a beer can and 48 rocks.

The gator was killed because it had "snapped up the soccer ball at the water's edge and could easily snatch a dog or a small child," Mark Carinus, a trapper with Critter Management, explained to the Island Packet.

Carinus added that the large reptile could not be relocated because of its propensity to eat other gators.

-- Thanks to The Outdoor Pressroom for the story tip

Zihuatanejo fishing report a tale of indiscriminate killing

The fishing report I received recently from Ed Kunze in Zihuatanejo has to be among the most brutally honest and depressing reports ever issued.

It refers to slow action for anglers, but what's depressing is Kunze's critical reference to a pair of sailfish tournaments in which all billfish are killed; and to an alarmingly high level of long-lining occurring off Ziuhuatanejo and to the north off Manzanillo.

Kunze, a representative for the International Game Fish Assn., is a long-time resident of Zihuatanejo and penned his report to coincide with the International Sailfish Tournament, which was held over the weekend.

That and a similar tournament off Nearby Lazero Cardenes are "the only ones I know of in the world which kills every billfish brought to the boat," Kunze writes.

Most billfish tournaments these days -- including some off Zihuatanejo -- offer incentives for catch-and-release, or penalize anglers for boating fish under a certain weight.

"They actually think they're entitled to the fish because they paid the entry fee and sport fishing license," Kunze writes of those who participated in the IST. "I remember a few years back when over 800 to a thousand sailfish were killed during this 3-day span."

It gets much worse. The fishing report includes recollections of Kunze's recent visit to Manzanillo with one of his captains, named Cheva. "What Cheva and I discovered in Manzanillo was a sport fisherman's worst nightmare. I personally saw 30 longlines -- rigged and ready to go. And, the local captains told us there were as many as 200 long lines in the pangas fishing in the area."

Zihuatanejo also is a hub for long-lining.  Cheva took local residents named Don and Mary Grantges fishing, and they witnessed first-hand the destructive nature of mile-long lines with baited hooks. Turtles, dolphins and sharks were tangled in a "floating killing machine of a long line which had been cut by a large oil tanker or another large ship."

The three anglers managed to free five turtles (one of them is pictured) and a dolphin.

Of the images posted into Kunze's report he writes, "either weep, at what is really going on out there, or rejoice as a few were saved."

The report ends with this this passage: "Another note is when Mary, who is a Mexican national, went to complain about the situation with the port captain, they told her it was out of their jurisdiction, plus they were leaving for lunch at that hour and could not help her.

"Mary was really pissed... in both English and Spanish."

 -- Images show a turtle and dolphin entangled in long-line fishing gear off Zihuatanejo. Both animals were freed. Credit: Ed Kunze

Another entangled gray whale discovered off Orange County

For the second time in five days off Southern California, a trained disentanglement crew is attempting to free a gray whale caught in commercial fishing gear.

The latest is a sub-adult traveling with a larger whale. They were spotted swimming slowly to the north Wednesday afternoon off Newport Beach, by a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter crew, which noted that a line attached to a buoy was wrapped around the smaller whale's fluke.

Part of the same disentanglement group that freed a juvenile gray whale from a gill-net Saturday off Dana Point arrived alongside both whales before dusk Wednesday, but conditions were too rough to attempt to cut what looked like several wraps of polypropalene line (perhaps from a lobster trap) around the whale's tail section, or base of its fluke.

Instead, the group attached two large orange buoys and flashers to the line to make the whale easier to find on Thursday, when the rescue effort will resume. (If the entangled whale is spotted by boaters, they're asked to notify the Pacific Marine Mammal Center  at 949-494 3050.)

For Dave Anderson, the leader of both rescue attempts, it has been an exhausting and emotional five days.

The juvenile gray whale his team freed from a massive gill-net after a marathon effort on Saturday might be the same whale that was found dead in Long Beach Harbor on Tuesday afternoon.

Both were thin and had similar wounds to the tail section, and the dead whale was trailing a short strip of black rope similar to the strip rescuers were unable to cut loose.

The match is not yet certain, however, but Anderson said that either way the publicity of these events helps to put the spotlight on the perils gill-nets and other indiscriminate fishing gear represent to migrating whales and other marine mammals.

"The good news is that because of the story, so many people now know that millions of dolphins and whales are killed by this type of fishing gear," he said. "So the whale's life will not have been for nothing."

Anderson runs Capt. Dave's Dolphin and Whale Safari and is hoping to return to whale watching, instead of whale rescuing, as soon as possible.

-- Image showing larger gray whale alongside smaller entangled whale is courtesy of Dave Anderson

Decorah bald eagles welcome new eaglet into the world

A bald eaglet named D12 was welcomed into the world after breaking free of its egg at 1:16 p.m. Tuesday in Decorah, Iowa, as more than 65,000 people watched via live webcam.

The mother eagle quickly covered her baby to protect it from a brisk wind, and so began another chapter in the lives of the world's most popular bald eagle family. Two other eggs will soon hatch and then this incredible nature reality show will really get interesting.

Last year millions of people from around the planet watched as three eaglets were raised from ungainly brown fur balls to large and handsome birds of prey, ultimately fledging to begin lives on their own terms.

In anticipation of Tuesday's hatch, Sherri Elliott posted a clever story about the pipping process and the parents' roles in the raising of their offspring on the Raptor Resource Project's Facebook page.

Part of it reads, "For anyone who worries about Mom pulling more duty than Dad, it’s been proven time and again whatta partnership this pair provide to their offspring. They’ve successfully reared and fledged 11 eaglets, and pretty soon we’ll be meeting this year’s bouncing bobbleheads! Pip, Pip, Hooray, I can hardly wait!"

(A pip is the first hole an eaglet creates in the egg shell before hatching.)

Below is the live eagle-cam for those interested in this year's saga. If it's anything like last year it'll be loaded with drama and intrigue. Millions will be watching so hopefully this will be another success story.

 

California Fish & Game commissioner should not resign over legal cougar hunt

News item: Dan Richards, president of the California Fish and Game Commission, announces that he has no plans to step down amid harsh criticism that has not ebbed since a photo surfaced in January, showing Richards posing with a mountain lion he killed during a guided hunt in Idaho.

The calls have come from animal rights groups, not unexpectedly, but also 40 legislators who this week delivered Richards a signed letter admonishing the commissioner for failing to respect "the laws of the people in California," and questioning his ability "to adequately enforce those laws."

Reaction: Richards was participating in a legal hunt and should not be forced to resign under pressure that was inspired, originally, by animal rights groups. At worst, the commissioner exercised poor judgement by providing a photograph of him posing with the dead cougar to an outdoors publication. He should have known that would ultimately land him in the anti-hunters' cross-hairs (see photo above).

But while hunting mountain lions is not legal in California, it is allowed in Idaho and other states, mostly as a means of keeping mountain lion numbers in check. Whatever a person's viewpoint, big-game hunting for meat or trophies is legal, even in California (for species such as bear and deer).

Said Richards to the San Diego Union-Tribune: "I’m not apologizing about anything because I didn’t do anything illegal. I didn’t share [the photo] with the world. The Humane Society of the United States shared it with the world. There is zero resign in me."
 
What's unique about the mountain lion issue in California is that voters, not the Fish and Game Commission or the Department of Fish and Game, were behind the movement to protect the big cats, which have been off limits since the passing of Proposition 117 in 1990. (The ban was not based on scientific evidence that proved sport hunting was a threat to the state's cougar population.)

But Prop 117 mentioned nothing about a citizen's right to travel to other states and participate in legal mountain lion hunts, which are deemed important by those states as a means of managing animal populations.

So the notion that Richards failed to respect the laws of people in California seems ridiculous. If Californians voted to impose a ban on trout fishing, for whatever reason, should Richards be admonished for vacationing in Montana and casting a line for trophy rainbows?

Surely, the Legislature -- unless its hidden agenda is to remove one of only two pro-hunting members from what's supposed to be a balanced Fish & Game commission -- has more important issues to grapple with.

To be sure, Californians would be better off if these Assembly members would get to work on those issues sooner rather than later, because this insignificant issue has received far too much attention.

-- Pete Thomas

Editor's note: This report was not written by a Republican, a hunter or because of any pro-hunting agenda. It's just an opinion, written in the interest of fairness