Fishermen Cast Adrift Blame Offshore Oil Explorations

Tap on the side of an aquarium and the fish are startled and swim away. Bang on a side, salmon fisherman Lorne Brown said, and they will cower in the corners of the tank.

So when oil companies blast compressed air underwater during surveys for oil, Brown said, “you don’t have to be a brain surgeon” to figure out that the fish are going to leave the area.

And sometimes, he said, the fishermen leave as well.

Last year Brown moved from Morro Bay to Crescent City and now fishes near the Oregon border to avoid the repeated oil company surveys off the shores of Santa Barbara County, where he used to fish for rock cod. During his last few years in California, Brown contended, he lost about a third of his catch because of oil surveys.

And, he said, the proliferation of pipelines on the ocean bottom and offshore oil rigs, which often are placed in prime fishing spots, eliminated many of his regular trolling areas.

“I felt like I was driven out of there by all that oil activity,” Brown said. “I lived in the area for 16 years and had a lot of ties there. But I could see the writing on the wall. I figured that the way things were going I better find another place to fish or I wouldn’t be able to feed my family.”

Brown is one of a number of rock cod fishermen who have moved on to other fishing grounds. Five years ago there were 12 boats fishing for rock cod off the northern Santa Barbara County coast, said Phil Schenck, a spokesman for the Central Coast Hook and Line Assn. Now three are left.

Schenck said he and the two other rock cod fishermen are holding an open-sea protest of the oil surveys, called seismic testing. They have planted their gear near Point Conception, where seismic surveys are scheduled this month. And they said they will refuse to move when the vessels attempt the tests.

“We’ve seen so many of our areas destroyed,” said Steve Timoschuk, one of the protesting rock cod fishermen. “They pounded over and over and just blew the fish away. We’ve lost too much and we can’t afford to lose any more areas. We’ve gone to meetings; we’ve gone to hearings; we’ve talked and talked to the oil companies, but not much has changed. Now it’s time to take a stand and protect our livelihood. It’s gotten to the point where guys will sink with their boats if they have to.”

Many other fishermen, besides those who catch rock cod, have complained that the air guns used in the oil surveys scare away fish and possibly harm the eggs and larvae of potential generations, said Charlie Kunzel, president of the Central Coast Fishermen’s Assn. During periods of heavy testing, said Kunzel, who fishes for halibut, sea bass and shark, his catch is reduced by half.

A study released last week by the federal Minerals Management Service supports some of the fishermen’s claims. During test periods, there was a 52.4% reduction in the amount of rockfish caught, according to the study.

But Mike Fergus, spokesman for the Western Oil and Gas Assn., which represents 60 oil companies, said it is still “premature” to draw any conclusions on the long-term effects of seismic testing. The study did not address the critical issue, he said, of how long it takes fish to return to an area after a test. And, he said, while many fishermen attribute their problems to the oil industry, they ignore other factors, such as overfishing and the damage caused by the El Nino warm water current in the early 1980s.

“It’s still a question mark, but we feel there’s only a minimal, if any effect at all, from seismic testing,” Fergus said. “There’s an awful lot of fish out there and a lot of noises. Traffic noise from huge ocean-going ships is probably more continuous than seismic activity.

“I am empathetic to the fishermen, but the ocean is a multiple-use resource for everyone. Oil and gas is not exactly a low priority use.”

And, Fergus said, California Fish and Game statistics show that there has been an increase in the total fish catch from the Santa Barbara Channel during the last 10 years, so “the impact couldn’t be too great.”

But Mac Oliphant, a Fish and Game Department marine biologist, said the increase is a result of the “new market” largely among Asian immigrants for sea urchins, which are not affected by seismic testing. The amount of fish--not including sea urchins--landed in the Port of Santa Barbara actually decreased by about 350,000 pounds between 1976 and 1986.

Fishermen are suffering even greater hardships than the figures indicate, said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Assns. Some fishermen who have been driven out of areas by the testing are still catching comparable amounts, but their expenses have increased because their new fishing grounds are farther out to sea. They are also spending longer hours to catch a similar number of fish.

Exploration Tripled

During the last decade, as oil and gas development has increased off Santa Barbara County, seismic exploration has about tripled, according the the State Lands Commission. The testing is conducted by vessels with cables up to two miles long loaded with dozens of compressed air guns. The guns, lowered underwater, repeatedly send extremely powerful sonic blasts of air into the ocean floor and the returning shock waves are analyzed to locate oil deposits.

As offshore crude oil production in the area increases in the next decade from 80,000 barrels a day now to the projected 500,000 barrels a day, fishermen from Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Ventura County say their $23-million commercial fishing industry will be threatened.

There are now 23 offshore platforms off Santa Barbara and Ventura counties and the number could double by the year 2000, according to Santa Barbara County officials.

Effect Change

While fishermen cannot control the proliferation of platforms in the area, Grader said, they hope to effect some change on the seismic testing policy.

On the average in the 1980s, there has been some seismic testing off the Santa Barbara County coast every other day, according to the Minerals Management Service. And fishermen have complained that after periods of heavy testing, there may be fewer fish in the area for months.

But state and federal agencies have been slow to respond to the fishermen’s complaints, said Bill Douros, a planner for Santa Barbara County’s Resource Management Department. The state has authority over oil development within three miles of the shore and the federal government has responsibility beyond that.

Lawsuit Filed

Neither the State Lands Commission nor the federal Minerals Management Service conducted environmental impact studies before granting permits to companies that do seismic testing.

And the Santa Barbara Commercial Fishermen’s Assn., along with a number of other fishermen, filed a lawsuit last week against the state commission, alleging that it violated state law by not requiring an environmental impact report.

The commission and the Minerals Management Service have a dual role, Douros said: to develop the oil and gas resources and to protect the environment. But, Douros said, “at present, they’re certainly weighted in the favor of the oil companies.”

But spokesmen for the two agencies said there simply has not been enough evidence of adverse environmental effects from the seismic testing to warrant the reports. The spokesmen said they are awaiting the results of a study sponsored by several state and federal agencies on the effects of seismic testing on fish eggs and larvae. And the Minerals Management Service is “looking into” conducting a more comprehensive study on seismic testing than the one just released.

Limit Tests

Schenck contended that the oil companies should either compensate the fishermen for the lost catch, or limits should be placed on the testing. Some fishermen have proposed that one agency control and conduct the seismic testing--to prevent repetitive testing--and then disseminate the information to the oil companies.

Western Oil and Gas Assn. spokesman Fergus said the oil business is very competitive and because of the “entrepreneurial” nature of the exploration, pooling information would be impossible. And, he said, discussion of compensation is “premature” because of the dearth of information about the effects of the seismic testing.

In the 1950s, the oil companies used explosives and analyzed the waves off the ocean bottom to locate oil deposits. Travis Evans, who has been fishing off the coast of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties for 36 years, still remembers the 50-foot “splash” that followed the explosions.

‘A Trail of Dead Fish’

“In the wake of these boats were a trail of dead fish that floated belly up,” recalled Evans, 65, who fishes for halibut, sole, red snapper and rock cod. “At least they don’t kill these fish today. But I’m sure they drive them away. . . . If you tear a swallow’s nest down year after year, the swallows are going to find another place to nest. If you blast a fishing area year after year, the fish are going to find another habitat, too.”

The oil companies abandoned explosives in 1966 and began using the more sophisticated seismic vessels for oil exploration. But three years later, exploration in the Santa Barbara area came to a halt after the massive blowout of a Union Oil platform, which spilled 235,000 gallons of crude into the ocean, killed birds and marine life and coated 30 miles of beaches with crude oil.

There was a moratorium on drilling until the mid-1970s and seismic activity was limited during much of the decade. But by the late 1970s, numerous oil and gas lease sites off Santa Barbara County were opened to bidding and a flurry of seismic activity soon followed.

Drop in Catch

Many fishermen said they immediately noticed a drop in their catch. And they have frequently complained that the cables trailing behind the seismic vessels often rip nets and destroy traps.

Oil officials said they are doing all they can to ease tensions between the fishermen and the oil companies. The California Coastal Operators Group, a trade organization representing the oil companies involved in offshore development in the Santa Barbara area, has funded an office to serve as a liaison between fishermen and the oil companies. Many fishermen have been compensated for gear damaged by the seismic vessels, said Terry Covington, executive director of the Coastal Operators Group. And, Covington said, the oil companies have made a greater effort to avoid seismic testing in sensitive areas during peak fishing seasons.

“The office is a point of contact between the two industries and I think some of the tensions have eased,” Covington said. “You can’t resolve all the differences, but rather than just sending out notices of when the seismic work is planned for, we’re now sitting around the table and trying to eliminate potential conflicts.”