Outdoor Notes : Challenge II Again Involved in 1st Marlin Catch

Challenge II, a local sportfishing boat, for the second time in four years, has been involved in the catching of the first marlin of the season in Southern California waters.

On July 4, Challenge II owner Rick Smith, fishing for swordfish near the 270 bank, 12 miles off the East end of Catalina, fought a 163-pound 8-ounce striped marlin for 47 minutes before landing the fish at 2 p.m.

While they were en route to the Avalon weigh station, skipper Paul Caronna heard of another hookup on the boat War Eagle, which was fishing 25 miles off the East end of Catalina. It turned out to be a 250-pound striped marlin, landed by Mike Hurt of Vista.

The Challenge II also produced the womens’ first marlin in 1984.

An emergency regulation, which has closed coastal waters off central California to commercial fishing with gill and trammel nets since April 1, will be extended beyond July 29, the Department of Fish and Game said.

Ocean waters will remain closed from the Sonoma-Mendocino County line south to Franklin Point in San Mateo.

Closures aimed at protecting diving seabirds and harbor porpoises, which become entangled in the nets and drown, affect waters up to 120 feet but extend to 240 feet off Marin County between Point Reyes and Duxbury Point. Also closed are waters within three miles of the Farallon Islands and Noonday Rock in San Francisco, and five miles off Point San Pedro in San Mateo County.

The emergency extension of the order closing near-shore waters to gill and trammel nets will be effective only until anticipated emergency legislation is approved providing for a year-round closure.

Resource managers, conservation groups and fishermen have been helping to promote legislation to institute a permanent closure.

Recent studies by the DFG, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service have shown that as many as 5 to 10% of the local breeding populations of common murres off central California died in recent years due to drowning in gill and trammel nets.

About 200 harbor porpoise have also been caught by the nets each year since 1982.

Murres and harbor porpoises are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1917 and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972.

A favorable anchovy supply, crucial to the maintenance of a healthy Pacific fishery and to commercial and game interests, has been predicted for the coming year.

The estimate was reported to the Pacific Fishery Management Council, chief planner for the management of the coastal fisheries in U.S. waters south of the Canadian border.

The quotas are expected to be made final Aug. 1 by the U.S. Department of Commerce, according to Rodney R. McInnis, southwest regional chief of the fisheries management division of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

“As far as the anchovies go, the situation is excellent,” McInnis said.

Briefly Winter run king salmon in the Sacramento River will not be accepted as a candidate for the state’s endangered species list, the Fish and Game Commission decided, citing “better prospects for their recovery.” . . . California taxpayers have contributed to the state Endangered Species Tax Check-off Program at record levels, the DFG announced, adding that if the trend continues more than $900,000 would be raised. . . . Don and Alicia Bullock’s California Gun and Knife Collectors show will be held Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at L.A. County Fairgrounds.