Nature Bowl Winners to Help Plant Fish in Jenkinson Lake May 30

Media Contacts:
Bruce Forman, DFG Region 2, (916) 358-2353 or (916) 591-1161
Kyle Orr, DFG Communications, (916) 322-8958

Students from six northern California elementary schools will get a hands-on nature experience next week – their reward for a job well done in the 28th annual Nature Bowl competition. The winners of the competition, students from Placer, El Dorado, Sacramento and Yolo counties, will assist the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) with stocking trout at Jenkinson Lake on May 30.

What: DFG Trout Plant

Who:  Elementary school students from the following schools:
Third and Fourth Grade Winning Teams

• First place: EurekaElementary School,GraniteBay
• Second place: Lake ForestElementary School, El Dorado Hills
• Third place: LatrobeElementary School, Shingle Springs

Fifth and Sixth Grade Winning Teams

• First place: Lake ForestElementary School, El Dorado Hills
• Second place: LatrobeElementary School, Shingle Springs
• Third place (three-way tie): MaryDeterding Elementary School, Carmichael Fred T. KorematsuElementary School, Davis Jackson Elementary School, El Dorado Hills

When: Wednesday, May 30
Meet at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery (20001 Nimbus Road, Gold River)
at 8:30 a.m. Arrive at the lake to stock approximately 10:30 a.m.

Where: Jenkinson Lake (a.k.a. Sly Park Lake), Pollock Pines

Click here for a map

The Nature Bowl is a regional, cooperative team competition focusing on activities and questions regarding environmental science and natural resource conservation topics that correlate to the California Education Standards for Science.  This year’s event was held in March and April, with the winning teams earning honors on May 5.

“Nature Bowl participants have spent months building a scientific foundation and learning about valuation of the natural world and how our actions can help reduce threats to the environment,” said Bruce Forman, DFG Nature Bowl Coordinator. “The competition is designed to prepare youth for real-world issues, so letting them help with an actual trout plant is a fitting reward for their hard work.”

More than 500 youths participate in the Nature Bowl each year. Students forming 82 teams from seven counties competed in Calaveras, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter and Yolo counties.

Three Arrested for Sturgeon Poaching in Olivehurst

Media Contacts:
Patrick Foy, DFG Law Enforcement, (916) 508-7095
Kirsten Macintyre, DFG Communications, (916) 322-8988

State game wardens have arrested three Olivehurst men on suspicion of sturgeon poaching on the Bear River. While serving search and arrest warrants at the suspects’ homes on May 12, Department of Fish and Game (DFG) wardens also discovered evidence of deer and bear poaching.

Sutter County Game Warden Nate Stebbins received two citizen tips over the course of a few weeks in April, both related to possible sturgeon poaching. Stebbins gathered a team of wardens to conduct surveillance of the suspects over the course of several nights. They observed Peter Anthony Gibbs, 25, Steven Michael Logan, 28, and Steven Allen Patterson, 29, all of Olivehurst, target sturgeon using snagging techniques with very heavy duty fishing tackle, complete with oversize treble hooks and one-pound weights connected below the hook. The wardens watched as the men retained the fish without tagging them – including one 82-inch-long sturgeon.

When the suspects returned to the boat ramp, an unidentified man met them, transferred the oversized, untagged sturgeon to his trunk and then sped away. All of these actions are violations of state law.

The wardens obtained search warrants for each of the suspects’ homes, where they discovered and seized sturgeon meat, two boats, heavy duty fishing tackle, deer meat and parts of a bear. All three suspects were arrested and booked into Yuba County Jail. The case remains under investigation.

California’s green sturgeon is listed as a threatened species while the relatively healthy status white sturgeon is dependent on very careful management of the fishery.  Fishing for and possession of green sturgeon is not allowed, and commercial fishing for white sturgeon is not allowed.  The white sturgeon sport fishery is highly regulated due to biological and demographic characteristics that make the species particularly susceptible to overfishing and high black market value.  Sport anglers are allowed to retain three white sturgeon per year within a slot limit of 46 to 66 inches, and are required to document catch on a Sturgeon Fishing Report Card.  The size and bag regulations protect the most prolific breeders of the population and moderate harvest rate, while Report Card data helps the Department manage the fishery and deter poaching.  Sturgeon management is made complicated by poachers who target sturgeon for meat and for eggs to be sold on the black market as caviar.

Anyone with information about this or any other poaching or pollution case is encouraged to call DFG’s CalTIP hotline at 888-334-2258.

DFG and Orange County Successfully Prosecute First MPA Violation

A Riverside County man was fined more than $20,000 and sentenced to a week in jail for poaching lobsters inside a marine protected area (MPA). This is the first resource crime conviction since the MPAs off theSouthern Californiacoast went into effect onJan. 1, 2012. 

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Marbel A. Para, 30, of Romoland pled guilty in Orange County Court on May 4 for violating Fish and Game Code 12013, which stipulates a minimum $5,000 fine for anyone who takes or posses more than three times the daily bag limit of lobsters.

“This diver intentionally took a huge overlimit of lobster with no regard for the current laws,” said Department of Fish and Game (DFG) Assistant Chief Paul Hamdorf. “He didn’t follow any fish and game laws, including the take restrictions within an MPA.”

After midnight on Jan. 15,DFGwardens foundParaand a companion with 47 California spiny lobsters in their possession. In addition to illegally taking the lobsters from an MPA, the divers were well over the legal possession limit of seven lobsters per diver, and all but five of the lobsters were undersize. Para claimed that all the lobsters were his and his companion was not cited.

“This was a big case, but unfortunately it wasn’t the biggest even in the last 12 months. Any time you have something that has significant monetary value, there will be a small group that will exploit it, regardless of what the law says,” said Hamdorf.

DFGhas been working closely with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to combat resource crimes in the county. Para was ultimately sentenced to three years probation, seven days inOrangeCountyjail and a $5,000 fine for theDFGviolation. Additional fees and penalties pushed the total fines to more than $20,000. He also had to forfeit all his SCUBA equipment and was given a “stay away” order from the Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve.

The MPAs were created through the Marine Life Protection Act in order to simplify and strengthen existing marine reserves and fishing regulations to allow recovery of fish populations that have been in severe decline.

Media Contacts:
Paul Hamdorf,DFGLaw Enforcement, (562) 342-7210
Andrew Hughan,DFGCommunications, (916) 322-8944