In the 1960s, steelhead trout were a common sight in the rivers and lakes of Santa Cruz County and throughout the Central Coast. Since then, however, their numbers have dropped by as much as 80 percent, and their future looks grim. A major culprit, say environmentalists, are poachers, particularly poachers who catch the fish with illegal gill nets.
Wardens from the State Department of Fish and Game are having a hard time enforcing local fishing regulations. The poachers are discreet, they say, and many of them operate on private property. Nevertheless, “Virtually every drainage in the county, we have found gill nets in,” says Warden Don Kelly, adding that the logistics make it impossible to conduct effective patrols. Even when they find a net, he says, it is often impossible to find out who put it there.
Bob Osborn of the United Anglers of Southern California claims that the problem can be attributed in no small part to the economy. Poaching increases during economic downturns he explains, and there is less money (or perhaps because there is less money) to pay for game wardens.
Meanwhile, the Fish and Advisory Commission is asking private property owners to post signs saying “No Fishing” on all land susceptible to poaching. It’s a small step, but an important one. As Russel Maridon, a longtime fishing enthusiast from Watsonville, points out, “Poachers will gill-net until they’ve got everything. You can clear out a lake.” Read more at Santa Cruz Sentinel.
