Governor Vetoes Ban on Croaker Fishing

SACRAMENTO —  For the second straight year, Gov. George Deukmejian has rejected legislation to ban the commercial harvest of white croaker fish off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

In a veto message Thursday, Deukmejian described the latest bill, written by Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), as unnecessary because the state Department of Fish and Game has closed the area to commercial white croaker fishing under emergency regulations.

Deukmejian said he expects the fishing ban to become permanent.

He added: “The Department of Health Services has also issued a health advisory to sport anglers against the consumption of white croaker taken from the affected area.”

The ban on commercial fishing was ordered in May after a state Department of Health Services study determined that white croaker in Peninsula waters pose an unacceptable cancer risk because they contain excessive levels of DDT and PCBs.

But Colleen Beamish, a Rosenthal aide, maintained that the administrative ban is inadequate because it is more easily subject to appeals and protests than a statute enacted by the Legislature.

“If it’s a law . . . it’s a lot more difficult to challenge,” Beamish said. “We want to make sure the closure is permanent,” she said.

Depending on what happens to the emergency administrative ban, Rosenthal may reintroduce the proposal next year, Beamish said.

Rosenthal also had sponsored a similar bill that cleared the Legislature last year but was vetoed by Deukmejian.

The emergency ban, ordered in May, affects state waters from Point Fermin to Point Vicente. The fishing prohibition expired earlier this week but was renewed for another 120 days.

The state health department study found that if white croaker taken from Peninsula waters were eaten once a week over a lifetime they could cause up to one additional cancer per 1,000 people.

Critics have argued that the findings were based on an inaccurate assumption, saying it is unlikely consumers will eat only one species of fish, all from the same source, for their entire lifetime.