Sports divers see something fishy in refusal to protect Garibaldis.

FISH FOLLOW UP: Garibaldis will have to fend for themselves for a while longer.

A bill to place a six-year moratorium on collecting the bright orange fish died in the state Assembly’s Ways and Means Committee last week.

“We were kind of taken aback by it,” said Dan Chick, an aide for Rep. Bill Morrow (R-Carlsbad), who introduced the bill in January. “We thought we had our ducks in a row.”

Sports divers argued that the population of Garibaldis has dwindled off Catalina Island and other Channel Islands because of the commercial aquarium collecting business.

Recent laws already prevent divers from collecting Garibaldis off Catalina Island. In any case, commercial divers denied their trade has diminished the number of fish.

“It’s not protecting fish; it’s simply putting people out of work,” Bob Todd, a Costa Mesa aquarium collector, said of the moratorium.

Sports divers doubt that many people would have been affected by the moratorium, given that Garibaldi sales are just a fraction of the aquarium business.

“I’m just disappointed as hell the Legislature let us down,” said Jim Hall of Ocean Futures, a sports-diving group. “We will fight another day.”

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CHEETAHS IN WAIT: Of the $274,000 in artwork that will go into the renovated Peninsula Center Library, the bronze cheetahs have struck a chord with critics.

They use the African animal sculptures as an example of the project’s excess at a time when the Palos Verdes Library District has been cutting back.

But there’s no turning back now. The cheetahs are finished, ready for delivery. Los Angeles artist Gwynn Murrill is storing them in her studio until the library opens early next year. Another artist will make etched glass, gold-leaf treatments and mosaics.

So why cheetahs?

According to Murrill, they will complement another piece she is making, a limestone column featuring a relief of endangered African animals. She will start work on the column in late summer.

“There’s no philosophical reason,” said Murrill, who was commissioned to do the work for $115,000. “It’s a universal theme.”

The cheetahs will serve a useful purpose as well, library officials said. One cheetah will look into the children’s room, directly at the other cheetah, which will be a focal point for the youths.

“The idea is to capture the kids’ attention and get them to the area,” said Library Director Linda Elliott.

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YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY: “Hot bodies . . . Cool Fashions!”

So shouts the slogan to a lunchtime fashion show being held Wednesday in Hawthorne. The event: Celebration of Women in the Workplace, also known as Hawthorne Plaza’s way of marking Secretaries Day.

Runway models may seem an odd way of celebrating women in the workplace in today’s politically correct world.

The mall, which is holding the event at The Proud Bird restaurant to benefit the city’s Chamber of Commerce, wanted “a fun bonding experience” for bosses and their employees, said mall marketing manager Karie Najemnik.

As for the community reaction, “We caught a little bit of buzz in the community,” she said. “It was like, ‘Whose hot bodies?’ ”

The answer: Members of the police and fire department’s rank and file, as well as Miss Hawthornes of the past and present.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“Did getting your nipple pierced hurt? Will a suntan fade the tattoos?”

--Terry Anfuso, questioning women with body piercings and tattoos on her half-hour show, “Terry’s Topics,” which airs on public-access channels.