Fish and Game Commission considering four possible courses of action
By KEVIN HOWE
Herald Staff Writer
A possible ban on lead bullets for hunting will be on the state Fish and Game Commission agenda when it meets next month in Bodega Bay.
The commission voted unanimously at its Feb. 2 meeting in Monterey to serve notice of its intent to amend hunting regulations for 2007-2010 with an aim of eliminating lead bullets in the California condor range.
It did not take action on the issue at Friday's commission meeting in Arcata, postponing action on the lead bullet ban to its April 13 meeting in Bodega Bay.
Commission president Robert Hattoy, 56, a strong supporter of the lead bullet ban, died Sunday at University of California-Davis Medical Center of complications related to AIDS. He was not present at the meeting Friday.
Hattoy and commissioner Richard Rogers both argued at the Monterey meeting that lead bullet fragments in game meat pose a threat not only to the condors but to the health of hunters and their families that consume them.
The commission is considering four action alternatives related to lead-containing bullets: take no action, ban the ammunition in specific deer-hunting areas, ban it statewide, or offer hunters incentives to voluntarily use nonleaded ammunition while hunting deer, elk, wild pigs and other large animals.
The specific hunting areas proposed include most of those west of the Sierra Nevada -- areas A, D9, D10 and D11 on Fish and Game maps.
Those are areas in which boundaries are already well known to deer hunters, according to Eric Loft, chief wildlife biologist for the Department of Fish and Game. Bullet restrictions within them would apply to all big-game hunting.
Last month, Tejon Ranch Corp. announced that nonlead ammunition will be required for all hunting and predator control on the 270,000-acre Southern California ranch starting this fall to protect condors that forage there.
Last November, a consortium of environmental activists, including the Wishtoyo Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeking a ban on the use of lead bullets by hunters in the state's condor ranges.
The plaintiffs cited studies showing that lead from bullets left in carcasses or gut piles from game animals is a major source of lead poisoning in the rare and endangered condors.
The assertion that lead bullets and fragments in carcasses eaten by condors are a major source of lead poisoning for the endangered birds was confirmed in August by scientists at UC-Santa Cruz. They published a study online in the journal Environmental Science & Technology that examined and analyzed lead from rifle bullets and shotgun pellets.
The UC-Santa Cruz researchers used a "fingerprinting" technique based on the unique isotope ratios found in different sources of lead. The technique enabled them to match the lead in blood samples from condors to the lead in ammunition.
The ban would extend to bullets from centerfire ammunition, muzzleloading balls, shotgun slugs and buckshot used for taking both game and non-game animals. Rimfire .22 caliber ammunition is not included in the proposed ban.
The California condor was declared endangered by the federal government in 1967 and by the state in 1971. In 1987, the last 22 wild condors were trapped and taken to zoos for a captive breeding program that has raised the condor population to just less than 300.
The commission will convene at 8:30 a.m. April 13 in the Bodega Bay Marine Laboratory Lecture Hall, 2099 Westside Road, Bodega Bay.
Kevin Howe can be reached at 646-4416 or khowe@montereyherald.com.
