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| | DFG News: Court Upholds Commercial Gill Net Prohibition to Protect Marine Life (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-14) |
 | | In the July 11 ruling, the court agreed with DFG that the use of the nets was directly impairing the recovery of the threatened southern sea otter, which is a state protected species and also listed as threatened on the federal Endangered Species List. |
 | | The court, however, did not find that the use of these nets resulted in a level of mortality that actually threatened the "viability" of the overall common murre population, which was a required standard. |
 | | In addition to protecting sea otters and common murres, the gill net closure benefits other marine life such as harbor porpoises, sea lions, elephant seals, and cormorants that inhabit California's nearshore ocean environment, and are also subject to entanglement by the nets. |
| www.dfg.ca.gov /news/news03/03070.html (522 words) |
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