Senator Mike McGuire passes bill to eliminate rising whale entanglements

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - According to the National Marine Service, 40 whales have been entangled off of California's coast in the first half of 2016 alone. Last year, 57 whales were entangled, which is the highest number in the history of recordings that began in 1982.

For many of those entanglements, crab fishing gear is to blame. North Coast Senator Mike McGuire's legislation will aim to permanently protect whales by removing lost and abandoned crab fishing gear from the ocean. His bill has been approved by both houses of the State and will now go to Governor Brown's desk.

It is estimated that thousands of crab pots are lost in the ocean every season. These pieces of gear could have hundreds of feet of rope attached to them.

"So what this bill will do is, number one, create an incentive program," said Senator McGuire. "So if you lose or abandon a crab trap, a crabber can go out and pick up that lost or abandoned gear and get paid to bring it back to port. The individual who lost that crab gear or abandoned it then has to pay to get it back. So it is a self financing program."

Senator McGuire said that retrieval program will be funded by industry related fees and not the taxpayers. For those crab fisherman that do not buy back their lost or abandoned crab traps, their vessel permits will be revoked for the next season.

Senator McGuire acknowledged that the Dungeness crab fishery has had a challenging few years. He said this gear retrieval program will be a great step forward in cleaning up our oceans and making a safer environment for workers on the Pacific and the whales that call it home.