Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/77322
2B Daily News – Saturday, August 4, 2012 Outdoorlife living "Skeet Fleet." We use steel shot and do not shoot auto load- ers such that we can maintain control of the shells and not have the casings land in the water. I guess the first ques- tion is what are the regu- lations regarding this activity and is there a dis- tance that we need to be offshore? I now live in northern California and am inter- ested in doing the same. Would there be an option of doing the same around Grizzly Island or on San Francisco or Suisun Bay? (Anonymous) Question: In Southern Cali- fornia we have taken large boats offshore on the open ocean to shoot clay pigeons with shotguns. We call this Carrie Wilson Target shooting in the ocean is not addressed in the Fish and Game Code, but littering in waters of the state is. Answer: "It is unlawful to deposit, permit to pass into, or place where it can pass into the waters of the state, or to abandon, dis- pose of, or throw away, within 150 feet of the high water mark of the waters of the state, any cans, bottles, garbage, motor vehicle or parts thereof, rubbish, litter, refuse, waste, debris, or the viscera or carcass of any dead mammal, or the carcass of any dead bird" the throwing of the clay birds, which are coat- ed in paint for visibility, into the water may be an issue. Therefore, & Target shooting with the 'Skeet Fleet' (FGC, section 5652). Depending on the loca- tion, there may also be local, state and federal laws prohibiting the dis- charge of firearms. meat Buying wild boar Question: I have heard wild boar numbers are often at excessive lev- els and that they can be hunted and sold. I am looking to purchase some wild boar meat. I know there are different hunting seasons for them and the quantity varies through- out the year. What is the regulation on selling wild boar and are there any people/businesses in the area that are licensed to do so? (Tara S., Carmel) Answer: We do have a rather large population of wild pigs in this state and they can be hunted; they just cannot be sold. According to Department of Fish and Game Statewide Coordinator for Bear, Mountain Lion and Wild Pig Programs Marc Kenyon, the sale of wild animals (including wild pigs) or their meat is unlawful in California. Only permitted domesti- cally reared deer meat and the products of domesti- cally reared deer or elk (jerky or sausage, for example) are exceptions. The sale of wild pig taken and sold within Cal- ifornia is unlawful. In addition, even wild pig taken in another state is unlawful to sell in Cali- fornia (FGC, section 3039). You should be able to locate pig through a ven- dor on the Internet that sells game meats. There are also state and federal requirements that apply to the products to make them safe and law- ful for sale for human consumption. Bringing a wolf car- cass or pelt back from another state Question: If I legally kill a wolf in Idaho, can I return to California with the wolf and or hide? (Tom R.) vested wolves and wolf pelts can be brought back into California under the following conditions: The animal must have As long as it is already pre-packaged, it would be legal to purchase and import into California. We have previously dealt with this issue extensively at county and state fairs where vendors sell vari- ous types of game meats at booths. Answer: Legally har- ment/docs/declaration_fo rm.pdf. Are hunters/anglers been taken legally in a state that authorized their legal take. You must have copies of the license, tag, etc. from the state where taken. You must declare the animal prior to entry into California. Official Dec- laration for Entry forms are available online at www.dfg.ca.gov/enforce- required to carry photo identification? Question: What type of identification am I required to carry when hunting and/or fishing? Is just my current license and tags all I need to carry or am I required to carry another form of ID? (Rus- sell W., La Verne) Answer: Unless you are a commercial fisher- man, you are not required to carry photo identification when hunt- ing or fishing, but it is always a good idea. Car- rying photo identification will allow a game warden to positively confirm your identification and that you are the licensed holder of the fishing/hunting license you are carrying. For California residents, it's best to carry a Califor- nia driver license or DMV identification card. DFG plans survey of anglers Wildfire season turns FISHING The Department of Fish and Game's (DFG) Central Valley angler surveys have begun on the American, Feather, Mokelumne and Sacra- mento rivers. Over the next five months, survey crews will repeatedly visit 20 different sections of river to cover the full extent of the inland salmon fishery. Survey crews count the number of boats and anglers, weigh and measure each fish caught and collect the heads of those salmon imbedded with a coded wire tag. survey crews collect is vital to understanding the dynamics of the salmon fishery resource and for setting seasons in the future," said Mike Brown, a DFG environ- mental scientist. "The collection of salmon heads imbedded with tiny coded wire tags pro- vides a history of how each hatchery release has fared and gives us information that can help guide salmon manage- ment in future years." During the 2011 Cen- "The information the SACRAMENTO (MCT) — National Weather Service meteorologist Mike Smith sits at a desk most of the year. In wildfire season, however, he takes on a new persona: He wears a fire suit and camps out for days at a time at ground zero of major forest fires. desk job inside — out coming days. By getting out of the Smith spent a week and a half this month as the resi- dent meteorologist at the Mill fire in the Mendocino National Forest — the 55th fire where he was the mete- orologist on scene. burned 10,000 acres," he said while he was finishing up his work there. "I got here the day after it Photo courtesy Department of Fish and Game It is required to give up fish heads to samplers under Fish and Game Code. tral Valley fall-run Chi- nook salmon sport fish- ery survey, crews con- tacted more than 4,000 fishing parties, measured 2,805 salmon and col- lected 652 salmon heads with coded wire tags in them. This and other baseline information were fed into a computer program that estimated the total effort and har- vest of Chinook salmon in the 2011 Central Val- ley river sport fishery. Those results showed HUNTING DFG offers special dove hunt opportunities The California Depart- ment of Fish and Game's (DFG) Upland Game Bird Special Hunts Program is offering special dove hunt opportunities this year. Hunters who wish to hunt on properties with con- trolled access must apply for reservations by Aug. 8. Sixteen special dove hunts are scheduled throughout California. Participants will be deter- mined by lottery. To allow a maximum number of hunters to participate, appli- cants and their party mem- bers may be drawn only once for all lottery dove hunts during the season. Duplicate applications will be disqualified. Dove season opens Sept. 1. Web at http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/DFGS pecialHunts/Default.aspx. To apply by mail, hunters Hunters can apply on the must fill out the 2012 Upland Game Bird Stamp Special Hunts Dove applica- tion, which may be obtained at DFG regional offices. MCT file photo Participants in special dove hunts will be determined by a lottery. The 2012 salmon sea- son is anticipated to be more productive than 2011. approximately 60,500 salmon were caught and kept and 10,990 salmon were released for a total catch of 71,489. Seventy percent of the salmon kept were 2-year-olds, also known as "jacks." Anglers fished on aver- age about 14 hours to catch a salmon. salmon to see if its adopse fin, the small fleshy lobe on the fish's back between the dorsal fin and the tail fin, is missing. If it is missing, the fish bears a coded wire tag. Since 2007, 25 per- cent of salmon smolts released at each of the five Central Valley salmon hatcheries had their adipose fin clipped and a tiny coded wire tag inserted into the fleshy portion of their snout. Samplers check each During the survey, samplers carry large plastic bags for anglers to carry salmon after heads are removed. Upon request, the angler survey will provide the angler with a recogni- tion letter containing information about their catch, including hatch- ery origin, age and release information. Although anglers on occasion do not want samplers to take the head of their catch, most voluntarily comply once the reason for the col- lection is explained. Section 8226 of the Fish and Game Code states, "Anglers upon request by an authorized agent of the Depart- ment, [must] immedi- ately relinquish the head of the salmon to the State." survey crews is essential for management of the highly popular salmon fishery. The data collected by experts like him are the "incident meteorologists" who inform firefighters of every nuance of the weather — from heat and humidity to changing gusts of wind. They make those calls from their tents and makeshift offices in the camps where fire crews refer to them as an "IMET." Smith and the weather office, an IMET "can stand under a fir tree" and take local measurements of tem- perature, humidity and wind, said Snook. For a first- hand look, an IMET often gets even closer to the fire, doing the same assessments with the firefighters on the line. Then, back with their lap- tops, IMETs can run sophis- ticated weather models with the data, making use of satellites, Internet access, and the same computer pro- grams and models that they use back in the office. Scott Jones, a Cal Fire battalion chief, was sta- tioned on-site this month at the Robbers fire in Placer County, Calif., to analyze fire behavior and aid with strategy. He relied heavily on his IMET. "I put him right next to me." experts are essential to building strategies to fight major wildfires. Using an IMET's information, fire chiefs determine the most effective and safe ways to contain raging fires. "You belong to them," Smith said. "For any inci- dent, any fire, you're the weather support for that par- ticular site." Such on-scene weather Anglers can review a summary of the Central Valley Fall-Run Sports Fishery for 2011 at http://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/Fil eHandler.ashx?Docu- mentID=43505&inline= 1 Julie Hutchinson, a Cali- fornia Department of Forestry and Fire Protection battalion chief, explained the need for detailed informa- tion about past, current and future weather. "We can go in and remove vegetation, remove grass, brush, and timber … but the one thing we have zero control over is the weather," she said. So that the fire crews know what to expect, an IMET briefs them each morning before they head to the fire. "They're writing the forecast for the shift package that the crew carries in their back pocket," said veteran IMET John Snook. As pre- dictive services manager for the interagency Northern California Geographic Area Coordination Center, Snook now provides long-term decision-making support regarding wildfires. During their 15-to-16- hour days, IMETs also pro- vide constant weather guid- ance and outlooks for the The IMETs, though criti- cal to strategy, focus on the safety of firefighters on the fire line, where "change in weather has caused more fatalities than any other thing," said Smith. So IMETs also teach meteorology courses to fire- fighters in the offseason. "Like what you would learn at the first quarter at col- lege," said Snook. Firefight- ers carry meteorological tools and can then interpret signs of weather change, like cloud cover, on their own. The courses help fire- fighters to be "a little weath- er savvier," said Kathy Hoxsie, warning coordina- tion meteorologist at the NWS Sacramento office. Nationwide, there are only about a hundred meteo- rologists qualified to be an IMET. It's not a job for everyone. They're "facing the peo- ple who are putting their lives on the line out there, and that's not always some- thing that everyone is com- fortable with," said Hoxsie. "They also need to be good at working on their own. They're the only (weather) person out there." But they seem to love it. "When you're in the office behind the desk behind the computer … you're not seeing people getting the forecast," said John Wallmann, another NWS meteorologist quali- fied to be an IMET.