Undersized Crustaceans Found in L.A. : 3 S.D. Firms Are Charged in Lobster Case

Three San Diego firms were among three seafood importers and nine other companies that were charged by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office Monday with possessing or selling undersized baby lobsters.

The charges came after state Fish and Game investigators, armed with tape measures, descended on three cold storage facilities in Los Angeles this summer and sized up 15,973 California spiny lobsters.

Their measurements led to the filing of criminal charges Monday by the Los Angeles city attorney’s office.

In all, 2,595 of the lobsters measured less than 3 inches long, the minimum legal size, according to Fish and Game officials and Deputy City Atty. Donald Kass, the prosecutor in the case.

The state code requiring baby lobsters to be at least 3 inches long is designed to ensure a continuing supply of the popular crustaceans by guaranteeing them time to mature and reproduce, said City Atty. James K. Hahn.

“The kind of irresponsible harvesting and dealing that took place in these cases would soon put an end to the species,” he said.

If convicted, the 12 firms could be punished by fines of $1,000 for each violation.

The San Diego companies charged in the case were Crest International Corp. and Ocean Garden Products, both seafood importers, and Tuna Ventures, a seafood brokerage firm.

Kass said Monday that the main importer charged in the case was Crest, which faces eight counts of importing the undersized lobsters between Oct. 28, 1978, and June 1. Crest president Stephen Willis declined comment Monday.

An official with San Diego’s Ocean Garden Products, however, said the charges are unusual and expressed surprise that they were filed in Los Angeles without a warning from the city’s attorney’s office there.

“My position is that there is no intent to deceive anyone here,” said John Filose, vice president of sales and marketing with Ocean Garden Products. “But I sure would like to talk to them about it before a civil complaint is filed.”

Filose said that his company, which imports millions of pounds of seafood a year, buys its lobsters from Mexican fishing cooperatives in Ensenada. The lobsters are measured by fishermen and Ocean Garden employees at Mexican processing plants before they are shipped into the United States, he said.

He said the company tries to make sure the lobsters measure up, but that sizing the seafood is not an exact science. “This is not building a BMW on an assembly line.”

The undersized lobsters were discovered during surprise Fish and Game inspections from June through August. The baby lobsters had been harvested in waters off Mexico and imported to the United States, Hahn said.

He said Mexico also has a law similar to California’s prohibiting the harvesting of lobsters under 3 inches long.

Besides Crest and Ocean Garden Products, the other import company named in the complaint was Galletti Brothers Foods of Vernon.

All of the defendants are scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 21 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Authorities said the confiscated lobsters have been placed in a freezer for possible use in sting operations.

Times staff writer Ralph Frammolino in San Diego contributed to this story.