A Warning Shot to Catalina: Know Your Rights and Document What You See

PUBLIC NOTICE: A WARNING SHOT TO CATALINA

On September 15, the Catalina Island Conservancy banned Avalon resident Nick Morrow from all Conservancy property for one year and revoked his road permit. Read their letter HERE.

Nick is a retired Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff and detective, a former licensed private investigator, a longtime wildlife photographer, and now something of a citizen journalist and community documentarian. He has photographed Catalina’s deer for years. His photographs and footage have appeared in news stories, interviews and documentaries, with additional news and documentary projects currently underway.

The Conservancy says its decision is based on three incidents involving Nick’s photography, observation and social-media activity. Nick vehemently denies the Conservancy’s statements, characterizations, attributions and insinuations concerning those events. The Coalition has reviewed contemporaneous evidence, including date- and time-stamped photographs, that materially conflicts with the Conservancy’s account and, in some respects, appears to squarely disprove factual assertions in the notice.

WE VIEW THIS AS A WARNING SHOT

Nick has been documenting the deer-removal project. He documented a Conservancy spotlight deer count conducted in Avalon in 2026. That documentation is how the Coalition learned that a 2026 count had occurred despite no resulting population estimate having been publicly disclosed. He has photographed equipment associated with the deer-removal operation, and he intended to continue documenting what happens as the operation proceeds.

The Conservancy’s own exclusion notice expressly relies, in part, on photography and social-media publication as grounds for taking away his access to the Island’s interior for an entire year.

Whatever the Conservancy intended, we view the effect as a warning shot to the Catalina community: watch what you photograph, watch what you document, watch what you say—or you may risk losing access to the interior.

For our mainland supporters, you need to understand how extraordinarily serious that message is on Catalina Island. For many people who live here, access to the interior is not an incidental recreational benefit. Their spiritual, emotional and recreational connection to the land is a central part of why they choose to live on the Island. The threat of losing that access therefore carries enormous power.

We have also received reports from residents who say they have been threatened with consequences involving employment, housing or lease arrangements, or access to the interior because they spoke out about the deer removal. We have not independently established every one of those reports, and we will not publicly accuse anyone based on an allegation we cannot substantiate. We are, however, taking those reports very seriously.

The Conservancy has chosen to undertake an extraordinarily painful and controversial lethal operation in the middle of a small island community. People are going to see it. They are going to photograph it, talk about it, investigate it, ridicule it, criticize it, and protest it.

You cannot carry out something this consequential in plain sight and expect the community to look away.

KNOW YOUR RIGHTS — AND YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

California law allows people to photograph and video people, vehicles, property, wildlife and events that are openly visible from public places. Someone’s objection to being photographed does not, by itself, make ordinary photography unlawful.

There are clear limits. Do not trespass. Do not stalk, threaten or harass anyone. Do not interfere with people or operations. Do not use intrusive means to obtain images of genuinely private activity that is not open to public view, and respect lawful restrictions applicable to places that are not public. Audio recording is different: California law restricts recording confidential conversations without the required consent.

The rule is straightforward: stay where you are lawfully entitled to be, keep a respectful distance, respect genuine privacy and document accurately what is openly visible to you.

A Conservancy vehicle parked in plain sight is fair game for photography. A spotlight deer count conducted in public view is fair game for observation and documentation. Dead deer visible on the landscape are fair game to document. Native plants growing in abundance on both sides of a deer exclosure fence are fair game to photograph, compare and discuss.

What is happening to Catalina is fair game for public scrutiny.

WHAT YOU CAN SAY AND POST

You may use your own lawfully obtained photographs and video to report, discuss, criticize, question and comment on matters of public concern. You may state your opinions, draw conclusions from what you observed, and use humor, parody and satire. Clearly recognizable satire does not become unlawful merely because its target finds it offensive, embarrassing or unwelcome.

There are limits here too. Do not knowingly or recklessly publish false defamatory statements of fact. Do not make true threats. Do not use social media to stalk or harass someone or direct others to do so. Do not publish genuinely private personal information for the purpose of frightening someone or sending others after them.

The safest practice is simple: document what you see and say what you think, while making clear which is which. If you are stating a fact, be prepared to support it. If you are expressing an opinion, say so. If something is satire, make it unmistakably satire.

THE DRONE BAN

There is another development we are watching closely. At essentially the same time the deer-removal operation began, the Conservancy announced a broad drone ban over Conservancy lands. 

Nick is a licensed drone pilot whom the Conservancy knows has regularly used aerial photography to document Catalina’s interior. In fact, the Conservancy itself previously authorized Nick to conduct drone photography and videography on the Island. Nick intended to document the deer-removal operation as well.

We are not claiming that the Conservancy adopted the drone ban because of Nick. We do not presently have evidence establishing that motive. We are saying that the timing and effect deserve scrutiny: a known community documentarian and drone photographer planned to document the operation; the Conservancy announced a drone prohibition coinciding with implementation; and shortly thereafter it excluded that photographer from Conservancy lands for a year based in part on photography and social-media activity.

We are paying close attention.

IF THIS HAS HAPPENED TO YOU, TELL US

If you have been threatened, pressured, warned or punished because you spoke publicly about the deer removal, photographed or documented what was happening, participated in advocacy, attended a protest, supported the Coalition, or otherwise expressed your views, please contact us. That includes threats involving access to the interior, employment, housing or lease arrangements, permits, business relationships or other consequences.

Please preserve the evidence. Keep original emails, texts, letters and notices; save complete screenshots showing dates and context; and write down what happened while it is fresh, including who was present and exactly what was said. Do not embellish, alter or selectively delete anything. We want facts.

Get in touch in any of the following ways:

• Email to: savecatalinadeer@gmailcom
• Call or Text our Hotline at: ‪(424) 334-1550‬
• Submit a report of deer removal activities you have witnessed or heard about here: Deer Removal Incident Report

Remember, we will never publicly identify you without your permission.

TO THE CONSERVANCY: SHAME ON YOU.

You have asked this community to endure the killing of animals many residents have known, watched, photographed and loved for years. You are doing it in the middle of their home, despite years of pleas, protests and very real grief.

There is something extraordinary about exercising that much power over a community, knowingly taking an action that is causing people profound pain, and then treating the community’s reaction to that pain as the problem. You cannot wound a community in plain sight and then become aggrieved when people say “ouch,” photograph what is happening, question you, criticize you or make fun of you for it.

People do not owe the Conservancy quiet acceptance of what it is doing. They do not owe it flattering photographs, agreeable commentary or freedom from scrutiny. The appropriate response to actual threats or harassment is to address actual threats or harassment—not to mischaracterize lawful action, observation, and criticism into something it is not because you may suffer bad publicity. 

Criticism is not harassment, observation is not intimidation, documentation is not a threat, and satire is not violence.

Know this: we are watching what happens next. We are documenting not only the deer-removal operation, but how people who question it, photograph it, criticize it, protest it or speak publicly about it are treated. We are collecting exclusion notices, permit actions, messages, threats, reports involving employment or housing, and other attempts to use access or economic leverage against people who speak out. We will preserve names, dates, screenshots, witnesses and original documents, and where the facts warrant it, we will put that record before the appropriate public agencies, lawyers, journalists and the community.

If what happened to Nick was meant to serve as a warning shot, understand that it has had the opposite effect. It has put this community on notice to document not only what is happening to the deer, but what happens to the people who dare to talk about it. 

What a disgraceful chapter the Conservancy is writing in Catalina Island’s history. Shame on the Conservancy for doing this to our community.