Strickland also urged Hight to consider extending the near shore limit to three miles. "If it is not extended, the entire near shore ecosystem will be severely damaged or, in a short time, destroyed entirely," said Strickland.

Hight issued his order to stop the killing of common murres, a protected sea bird, and sea otters by the gill and trammel nets.

The central California population of common murre is the subject of a major restoration effort by the state and federal governments. "The annual drowning of 5,000 birds by the Central California gill net fishery is significant enough to jeopardize the Devils Slide and Castle Rock/Hurricane Point colonies, as well as cause identifiable long-term impact to the Farallon and Point Reyes colonies," said Hight in his order.

The statewide population of the southern sea otter, a marine mammal listed as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act and "fully protected" under the Fish and Game Code, is the subject of a federal recovery plan. Ten percent of the population now lies between Point Sal and Point Arguello, and there is "sufficient evidence" that the population decline in recent years is continuing, according to Hight. Four progressive spring counts of sea otters throughout their range, from 1996 to 1999, demonstrated progressive population declines, from 2,377 in 1995 to 2,090 animals in 1999.

"After careful consideration, I have determined that as a direct result of the use of gillnets, there is the danger of irreparable injury to, or mortality in, the common murre population which is occurring at a rate that threatens the viability of the population," Hight said. "I have also determined that, as direct result of the use of gillnets, the recovery of the southern sea otter as a protected species is impaired."

In Strickland's letter to Hight, he also recommended curtailing commercial fishing for halibut, citing the fact that commercial fishermen are allowed to take "an unlimited number of halibut in inshore waters and San Francisco Bay," with no limit imposed upon them unlike sport anglers fishing with hook and line. Hight's order was designed to protect sea birds and sea otters, but it will also have a favorable impact upon halibut, rockfish and other fisheries. Gill and trammel nets are the "clear cutters" of the sea, resulting in the devastation of marine environments as they drag the bottom and take everything in their path.

Both halibut and rockfish gill net fishermen discard lots of "bycatch" fish and other marine life because they are are undersized or not the targeted species. Unfortunately, the exact amounts of bycatch aren't known because of the lack of data and studies by the federal and state governments. Anglers have for years been going to DFG, Fish and Game Commission and Pacific Fishery Management Council meetings, demanding that observers be placed on commercial and gillnet boats to see exactly what the bycatch is.

This emergency order to protect murres and sea otters took place at the same time that the Department of Fish and Game and the PFMC were considering further restrictions on sport and commercial fishing to protect declining groundfish populations. The constant need to issue emergency restrictions, whether for sport and commercial fishermen, points to an essential failure of proper management of our fisheries by the state and federal governments.

Just look at the East Coast, where the impact of failing to manage coastal fisheries is most dramatic. The parallel East Coast management body to the West Coast's PFMC closed the Atlantic cod fishery of the Great Banks only after the population of cod completely collapsed, in spite of warnings by fishery conservation and environmental groups for years.

I support Strickland's request for making the near shore gill net restriction permanent, as well as considering curtailing commercial fishing for halibut in San Francisco Bay and inshore coastal waters.

However, I think we need to think about banning all gillnets in state and federal ocean waters, since they are such a destructive and wasteful way to fish. For too long, a variety of fish species, including rockfish and halibut, as well as endangered sea birds and sea mammals, have been decimated by the "clear cutters of the sea," gill and trammel nets. These nets are an unsustainable, wasteful fishery that should no longer be allowed in state and federal waters.