Aquarium Fish Trade Comes Under Attack : Environment: Diver’s death prompts investigation. Critics say the collecting of specimens for the pet trade is wreaking havoc on marine life. Wholesalers disagree.

When an uncertified commercial deep-sea diver drowned off Catalina Island a year ago while collecting brilliantly colored fish for aquariums, it triggered an investigation that produced surprising results.

The diver--Kenneth W. Howard, 34, of San Pedro--was making as much as $654 a day capturing baby sharks, infant red-gold Garibaldis and other marine life when his air supply and luck ran out 73 feet down on Isthmus Reef, investigators said.

Some called the diver’s death an accident. Law enforcement officials disagreed, charging that conditions on the dive boat where Howard worked were unsafe and unlawful. Although no charges have been filed, the case remains under investigation, and it has touched off a furor among fisheries experts, sport divers, charter boat operators and environmentalists. Few had ever heard of this kind of commercial fishing off the California coast or the havoc they say it is causing in the marine environment.

As the investigation into the death unfolded, state fish and game wardens began to learn how these divers went about collecting and selling a variety of marine life to the $3-billion-a-year aquarium trade.

“The death of that diver opened Pandora’s box. We had no idea that kind of commercial fishing was going on or how destructive it is,” said Harry Pecorelli, 61, of San Pedro, a retired commercial diver and head of Catalina Conservancy Divers, an environmental group.

“They’re raping the ocean, taking everything they can catch,” he said. Some divers are illegally using chemicals to stun the fish or using small dredge-like suction devices that devastate the marine life on the rocky reefs and ocean floor, Pecorelli said.

The heaviest hit areas are the coves and reefs along the eastern side of Catalina Island, he added.

State officials say a standard, $90-a-year commercial fishing license is all that these fishermen need to collect aquarium specimens. Such a license is available to anyone, certified diver or not. It covers virtually all forms of commercial fishing but sets no restrictions on collecting fish for aquariums.

Pecorelli’s group is pushing legislation that would require a special commercial fishing license to collect aquarium fish. The bill, making its way through the Legislature, would also close the heavily fished waters off Catalina to such diving. The bill has the backing of the Sport Fishing Assn. of California, a trade group representing charter fishing and recreational dive boat operators.

Because aquarium collecting is not regulated, state Department of Fish and Game officials say they can only guess how many divers are working the waters off Southern California. They have no idea how many marine specimens are being taken or what impact such fishing is having on aquatic ecosystems.

State officials estimate that as many as 50 aquarium collectors are diving off two dozen boats in Catalina waters. Some also fish the South Bay shorelines, using hook and line to catch baby sharks. The returns can be attractive.

Records show that a week before he died, Howard was diving for Garibaldis and stingrays, selling them for $5 to $7 each and earning about $200 a day. On his best day, Howard brought in 48 Leopard sharks, selling them for $12 each. That same day he caught four horn sharks and a stingray. His check totaled $654.

Divers and the wholesalers who buy their catch for resale to pet stores and aquarium suppliers around the world say Pecorelli’s allegations are not true.

“The Catalina Conservancy Divers’ charges are totally unfounded and inflammatory,” said Charles Winkler, 43, a San Pedro diver who owns a boat. For 17 years Winkler has worked almost exclusively in Isthmus Cove, where Howard drowned. Winkler looks primarily for Catalina goby, a tiny, brilliant red fish with blue bands that he catches by the hundreds and sells for $1.25 each. Pet stores sell them for two to three times that price.

Wholesale buyers such as Marc H. Nelson, owner of California Marine Collectors in Inglewood, argue that their divers are not having an adverse impact on marine life.

“I’m not into the rape of the ocean,” Nelson said. “If I thought what I was doing was detrimental to the ocean environment, I’d walk away from this business.”

Nelson’s aquarium tanks hold hundreds of small marine creatures--baby sharks, rays, eels, pipefish, snails and colorful anemones, as well as Garibaldis and gobies. He is one of a dozen wholesalers who ship California fish all over the country.

He acknowledged that there are some problems and abuses in the collection and sale of aquarium specimens and agreed that the industry needs to be regulated, but he also said Pecorelli and other critics are overreacting.

“This whole thing is being blown way out of proportion,” he said. Compared to the thousands of different tropical fish available, only a relatively few California marine species are adaptable to aquarium life. As a result, he said, the California catch makes up only a tiny part of the pet fish industry.

For most people who buy pet fish, aquariums are a hobby.

But not everyone agrees that California fish are adaptable to hobby aquariums. California waters are cold, and to keep these marine creatures healthy, the tank water must be chilled and held under 60 degrees, said marine biologist Rimmon C. Fay.

“You sentence them to a slow death when you put them in warmer water,” Fay said. Temperatures in most hobby aquariums range into the high 70s, and the cost of installing a chiller and proper filters can be expensive--$1,000 or more, he said.

Fay, owner of Pacific Bio-Marine Laboratory, has been collecting marine life in California waters for nearly 40 years. His clients are researchers, educators and scientific institutions around the world.

Because these divers are taking only the very young specimens, he believes that they are having a negative impact on the aquatic ecosystems in the heavily fished Catalina waters. He favors strict regulation of collectors and measures to protect the marine environment.

State fish and game biologists suspect that some areas are being too heavily fished, but they have no data to back up these assumptions, officials said.

“All we have is anecdotal information,” said Mark Garcia, department spokesman. Studies need to be done, he said. “And we need to get it regulated before it gets out of control.”

The complex regulatory bill before the Legislature was introduced by Assemblyman Gerald Felando (R-Torrance) and would list the marine organisms that could be taken and those that are to be protected. It would also specify which fish can be captured and sold for aquariums, and would require divers and wholesalers receiving their catch to buy licenses. One of the most controversial parts of the bill would prohibit diving along the near shore, or lee side, of Catalina from Avalon to Lands End, Felando said.

“These aquarium guys are making a desert of the lee side of Catalina Island, and they’re doing other horrendous things like catching adult Leopard sharks, cutting open the mothers and selling the live unborn pups,” Felando said.

State fish and game experts are hesitant to endorse the full closure, suggesting that the bill be amended to close only Isthmus Cove at first. If studies show the other areas are hard hit too, then they could be closed, officials said.

Winkler, who has been grossing $50,000 a year collecting fish on Isthmus reef, objects strenuously.

“If they pass that law, it’ll put me out of business,” he said. Working at depths of 30 to 50 feet and using a “slurp gun” device that sucks up the tiny gobies, he will collect a few hundred in a day’s diving, but says the impact is minimal.

“You’d never know I was there,” he said. Even if he found another place to collect gobies, he could not afford the fees proposed in the bill.

“I’m paying $663 (a year) for (commercial fishing) licenses and (boat) fees now,” including the fishing licenses of a second diver who acts as a helper, he said. If the bill passes, he said these costs would triple.

At the time of his death, Kenneth Howard was working as a helper on a boat owned by Victor La Fontaine of San Pedro. According to attorney Jared Eisenstat, who represents La Fontaine, Howard was not an employee. Rather, he was an independent contractor who used the boat’s diving equipment and sold his catch to La Fontaine.

On May 15, 1991, La Fontaine and Howard were anchored over Isthmus Reef, working in 70 feet of water. They were using air hoses hooked to an air compressor on the boat, rather than tanks and scuba gear, investigators said.

No one can be certain what happened on Howard’s fourth and last dive. Investigators reported that he had unhooked his air hose, probably to untangle it from the thick forest of kelp, and was using his emergency air bottle at the time he died. All the air in the emergency bottle had been sucked out, they said.

His death was investigated by diving experts from the Sheriff’s Department and by the California Department of Occupational Safety and Health. Both agencies reported that Howard was not a trained, certified diver. They said he had been down too deep for too long, far exceeding safe diving standards.

Investigators said La Fontaine was on the boat when Howard got into trouble. La Fontaine told investigators that he went to Howard’s aid but was too late to save him.

Cal/OSHA contends that Howard was an employee working in dangerous, unlawful conditions. They cited La Fontaine for violating numerous health and safety regulations and fined him $2,500. He has appealed.

Sheriff’s investigators asked the district attorney to file manslaughter charges, contending that the diving and work conditions on La Fontaine’s boat constituted criminal negligence.

“The case is still under investigation,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. David Guthman.

In the meantime, the Felando bill has been passed by the Assembly and is scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Natural Resources Committee this month.