Oil Spill Both Blackens, Brightens Seaside Business : Retailing: Surfing-related businesses appear to be hit the hardest. Some retailers find a profit in the disaster. Claims and lawsuit plans abound.

The oil spill that coated the beachfront with a blackish froth last month has washed bad vibrations ashore in the cozy business district of Surf City.

“We’ve been drastically quiet. With the oil spill, there are no surfers,” lamented George Draper, owner of George’s Surf Center, as he sat in the rear of his store glancing through a newspaper.

A couple of doors away, Ron Abdel, owner of Jack’s Surf Shop, leaned against a rack of discounted sweat shirts. It was nearly noon and he was yet to ring up his first sale of the day. “It’s really bad,” he said, estimating that his business has dropped off by 70% since the Feb. 7 spill by the tanker American Trader.

From bait shops to boat dealers, surf-wear emporiums to sportfishing charters, owners of marine-related businesses in Newport Beach and Huntington Beach estimate that the oil spill has cost them hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of dollars.

More than 300 claims for damages have been lodged, primarily by local businesses, according to a spokeswoman for British Petroleum. A Los Angeles attorney has been talking with business groups about a possible lawsuit. For some merchants, however, the spill--now nearly cleaned up--has been a boon.

A short hop from the beleaguered surf shops, business has been brisk at Happy Days Frozen Yogurt, where co-owner Sue Belmonte has spruced up her menu with new specials to capitalize on the oil disaster. The new menu items include the “American Trader” (a small yogurt cup with a hole in the bottom) and the “Hot Sludge Sundae.”

Restaurants and novelty shops found a new rush of business from the oil cleanup workers and the throngs of curiousity-seekers who flocked to the area to see the effects of the spill.

“Basically, the restaurants and hotels have been doing well,” said Joyce Riddell, executive vice president of the Huntington Beach Chamber of Commerce. “The businesses that are possibly suffering are the retail-type establishments geared specifically to the surfer. Since the beaches (have been) closed, the surfers are not there.”

As the beaches have gradually reopened, hard-hit businesses are hoping to burst back to life as soon as this weekend. And on Main Street, the merchants are talking about claims or lawsuits to recover their losses.

The tanker’s owner, American Trading Transportation Co., has publicized its claims operation and has hired Crawford and Co. Insurance Adjusters in Santa Ana to collect and review claims for damages.

As of late this week, 345 claims had been filed, said Marcia Meermans, a spokeswoman for British Petroleum in Long Beach, which has been helping to coordinate the spill cleanup for American Trading. BP’s crude oil was being carried aboard the tanker at the time of the spill.

Some of the claims have already been settled, but she said she could not release any specific dollar amounts.

Meermans said the claims have come from “primarily fishermen, commercial boating enterprises and businesses related to marinas.”

Reed M. Williams, a Long Beach attorney representing American Trading, said that once claimants file the necessary information, they will be visited by a Crawford adjuster, who will try to validate the losses.

Processing can take from days to weeks, but he added that the filing of a lawsuit could take years to conclude.

That has not stopped Los Angeles attorney James H. Davis, however, who is actively exploring whether to file lawsuits on behalf of business owners in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach.

“I went down and spoke to the Huntington Beach merchants,” he said. “We chatted about it and I was surprised to see that the damages extended far back from the water’s edge and had affected the small merchants, the yacht repair (yards) as well as the fishermen.”

Some shorefront executives say they may take a middle-ground approach: seeking legal means only if they cannot get satisfaction via the claims route.

“We’re going to say, ‘Look guys, this is what we lost,’ ” said Eddie DiRuscio, manager of Davey’s Locker Sportfishing in Newport Beach’s Balboa Pavilion, which plans to file a claim next week. “If they can’t agree with that, we’re through talking with them. We’ll let legal counsel hash this out.”

The sportfishing business, he said, was brought to a stop by closure of Newport Harbor when it was threatened by drifting oil. Though the booms were removed two weeks ago, he said, so few anglers realize that the boats are again plying the fishing grounds that business is still off 45%. Business in the adjoining bait-and-tackle shop is about half of normal.

He said he would normally receive 200 phone calls daily for fishing charters, but the calls have dwindled to 20 a day.

The economic damage is not confined to the waterfront. Dottie Cox, owner of the Bait Shack in Stanton for 11 years, said business has never been worse.

“It just seems like a generally discouraged feeling among the fishermen. They are not sure whether they can eat anything they catch” because of the oil spill, Cox said. Private environmental experts hired to test the ocean water say they have found no evidence of contamination.

The operator of Orange County’s only regular boat service to Avalon estimates losses at about $50,000 as a result of the twin-hulled Catalina Flyer being penned in for 12 days by the harbor closure. General Manager Bob Black said he plans to file a damage claim and hopes that crew members who were furloughed when the passenger vessel was unable to sail will be reimbursed quickly for lost wages.

All is not bleak, however. Besides the fancy selections in the Huntington Beach yogurt shop, other seaside entrepreneurs are hawking oil spill T-shirts. Besides the “Crude Is Rude, Dude” pen-and-ink logo, another T-shirt on sale on the Balboa Peninsula sports a drawing of a leaky tanker with the motto, “Alaska ‘89, Huntington Beach ‘90, Where next . . . ?”