Official Urges Curb on White Croaker Fishing : Health: Study indicates higher cancer risk. Unacceptable levels of DDT and PCBs found in fish caught off Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Citing a higher cancer risk for those who regularly eat the fish, the director of California’s Department of Health Services recommended Monday that commercial fishing for white croaker be restricted or banned off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Dr. Kenneth W. Kizer made the announcement after determining that white croaker caught near the peninsula has excessive levels of DDT and PCBs, cancer-causing chemicals discharged through the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts’ sewage outfalls off White Point in the 1950s, ‘60s and early ‘70s.

He based his decision on a state health services analysis of 20 white croaker caught near Point Vicente, Point Fermin and the White Point outfalls in 1986 and 1987. The study found mean levels of up to 2.98 parts per million of DDT and up to 0.6 p.p.m. of PCBs. If the fish were eaten once a week over a lifetime, the study said, they could cause up to one additional cancer per 1,000 people.

“The levels of DDT and PCBs in white croaker from the waters of the Palos Verdes Peninsula present a higher-than-acceptable cancer risk to those who would regularly eat this fish over a long period of time,” Kizer said in a statement to the state Department of Fish and Game.

A Fish and Game official said his agency would probably respond to Kizer’s recommendation by banning commercial harvesting of the fish in state waters from Point Fermin to Point Vicente. The official, Marine Resources Supervisor Don Schultz, said Fish and Game Director Peter Bontadelli would likely take action within a week to 10 days.

State health officials have been warning recreational fishermen not to eat white croaker caught off the Palos Verdes Peninsula since 1985, after studies suggested that the bottom-feeding fish were being contaminated by DDT and PCBs embedded in the ocean sediment. But no action was taken to restrict commercial fishing for white croaker, which is marketed locally as kingfish or tom cod.

A proposed commercial ban that would have affected a broader area, including a large part of San Pedro Bay, was vetoed last year by Gov. George Deukmejian after it drew fire from a sportfishing group, led at the time by one of the governor’s longtime political supporters.

A spokesman for the governor said Monday that Deukmejian’s office had no comment and would likely defer to the Fish and Game Department’s decision.

State Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored last year’s white croaker legislation, has introduced a narrower version this year that would ban commercial fishing for white croaker from Point Fermin to Point Vicente. Rosenthal praised Kizer’s announcement. “I think it’s great,” he said. “I think we’re moving in the right direction.”

There are no reliable estimates on how much white croaker is caught commercially between Point Fermin and Point Vicente. But according to the Fish and Game Department, white croaker netted in an area from the western tip of the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Los Angeles-Long Beach Harbor totaled 72,657 pounds in 1987 and 52,497 pounds in 1988.

According to Peter Huh, general manager of Pacific American Fish Co., a Los Angeles fish wholesaler, the fish is a staple in the diets of many Asian-Americans.

WHITE CROAKER Facts and figures about the white croaker: Genus: Genyonemus .

Species: Lineatus .

Retail Name: Tom cod or kingfish.

Average Weight: 1/2 to 1 pound.

Average Size: 10 to 12 inches.

Locale: Central Baja California to British Columbia.

Habitat: Shallow waters above muds and other soft sediment.

Food: Worms, shrimp, small crabs and other bottom-dwelling marine animals.