By Don Thompson
ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 21, 2002


SACRAMENTO – The crew of a charter "party boat" shot and killed pelicans that were disrupting fishing by paying passengers, the Department of Fish and Game alleged yesterday.

Another boat took no steps to avoid snaring pelicans and other birds with baited hooks, such as moving to another location, making noise, or avoiding spreading chum until the birds departed.

When a sea lion or seal began threatening passengers' catch, the reaction on one boat was to grab a rifle and try to shoot the animal, Capt. Nancy Foley of the department's special operations unit said yesterday.

In each case, the crews were unaware one of their paying passengers was a plainclothes game warden participating in "Operation Near Shore," the first concerted statewide undercover crackdown on rogue party boats.

Game wardens targeted 18 of the 408 party boats licensed by the department, concentrating since the beginning of the year on boats that had generated complaints. The game wardens found enough evidence to bring charges against operators of 14 of the boats.

"The citizens were coming to us and saying, 'You can't believe what's happening on these particular boats,' " Foley said, noting that, "it generally takes a lot for a citizen to complain."

The captain of the "New Sea Angler," Richard Powers, 48, and his deck hand, Atsushi Yamashita, 33, both of Bodega Bay, were led from Powers' Bodega Bay Sport Fishing Center in handcuffs Monday. They remained jailed yesterday in lieu of bonds of $100,000 and $75,000, respectively, pending a Wednesday arraignment.

They were charged with felony conspiracy, the most serious of the charges expected to be brought this week against operators of boats along much of the California coast.

Powers is vice president of the Golden Gate Sport Fishing Association and a member of an advisory committee to the Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

Powers and Yamashita were charged with overfishing rock fish, using too many hooks and keeping prohibited species. Searches of his boat and fishing center produced illegal fishing gear and 42 fishing license books that were overdue to the Fish and Game Department, the department said.

Charges against additional operators are scheduled to be filed by prosecutors in Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Monterey, San Francisco, San Mateo and Sonoma counties, Foley said. The undercover operation will continue as needed, he said.


Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.