Sen. Mike McGuire’s bill to clear crab gear for whale safety heads to Gov. Brown’s desk

California state lawmakers have approved legislation they hope will help make coastal waters safer for whales and other marine mammals who too often become entangled in lost and abandoned gear used to catch Dungeness crab.

The Whale Protection and Gear Retrieval Act, authored by North Coast state Sen. Mike McGuire, D-Healdsburg, now awaits Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature before it can go into effect.

The legislation would impose a fee-based system through which crabbers could be paid for collecting other people’s abandoned gear after the close of the season, which runs from mid-November to the end of June off the Sonoma Coast. Owners of the recovered property would then be required to buy it back or face the loss of their seasonal permit. The payments would fund the program.

The bill, introduced last spring with the support of the commercial crabbing industry, comes amid an alarming rise in whale entanglements off of the California Coast. Nearly 40 such cases were reported off the state coastline during the first half of 2016, with a record 57 in 2015 - a 90 percent increase from the previous year along the entire coast of the western U.S.

From 2000 to 2012, there were an average 11 entanglements, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The federal government began keeping such records in 1982.

“We need this legislation, now more than ever,” McGuire said in a written statement. “Whale entanglement numbers are skyrocketing off the California coast, and we’re bringing together crabbers and environmentalists to get this common sense bill signed into law.”

Thousands of crab pots are believed to be lost in the ocean every year. They are usually attached to long lines and buoys that can easily become snarled and blown from their intended location, creating hazards for unsuspecting wildlife. Humpback whales, followed by gray whales, are most often entangled, though endangered right whales are considered especially susceptible because they feed at the surface in busy coastal waters.

The proposed system mirrors a 2-year-old pilot program through which volunteer participants have collected nearly 1,500 crab pots that would otherwise remain out in the ocean, posing a threat, McGuire said.

McGuire’s bill passed the Assembly on Thursday.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.