Senate Panel OKs Croaker Fishing Ban

A state Senate panel Tuesday approved a ban on commercial fishing of white croaker in Santa Monica Bay. The Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Wildlife, in an 8-0 vote, approved a bill that also would prohibit commercial fishing of white croaker near the White Point Sewage Outfall near the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Tests of the water in the area show it has “extremely high levels of toxic contamination” and that the white croaker species in particular is “unfit for human consumption,” said Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), who authored the bill.

Although authorities thought commercial fishing near the outfall had stopped after tests disclosed the problem in 1985, they found evidence last year that fishermen were catching white croaker and “those fish are sold to unsuspecting consumers,” Rosenthal said.

He said his bill, which was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee for another vote, was limited to white croaker because it is not a transient species and therefore susceptible to site-specific contamination.

Another bill approved by the committee would authorize the state director of fish and game to close contaminated areas to commercial fishing.