Laguna Beach Moves to Crack Down on Scuba Divers

After more than 2 years of complaints, the city of Laguna Beach is moving to regulate the mushrooming number of scuba divers.

At a council meeting Tuesday night, the council heard from beachfront residents in north Laguna Beach who asked that something be done about divers who block driveways and make noise.

Council members also heard from representatives of the scuba industry, who acknowledged the problem but insisted that more education--not regulation--is the answer.

The City Council tentatively approved a proposal that would, among other things, require that scuba classes be licensed by the city and call for expansion of the marine life refuge that surrounds Heisler Park. How far the refuge would extend hasn’t been determined. Diving is permitted in a refuge area, but marine life cannot be removed.

The city staff is to report back in a few weeks with a list of other recommendations for what could be one of the West Coast’s more sweeping scuba-diving ordinances. In California, a Laguna Beach city official said, only La Jolla and Monterey have similar ordinances restricting the number of divers at certain beaches.

The council agreed to postpone any final action, to give divers a chance to resolve the problems themselves.

But Dean Berko, chairman of the nonprofit Laguna Beach Marine Life Preservation Assn. and a representative of the homeowners, said divers “have had a chance to regulate themselves, but the problems are worse than ever at this point. It’s difficult to sleep in past 6 a.m. anymore. The tranquillity of the environment has been shattered.”

Berko recounted a litany of residents’ concerns: divers blocking private driveways while they unload equipment, loud talking and the noise of air being released from oxygen tanks, and divers taking up most of the beach space on small coves.

Berko also complained that divers are taking too much marine life from Laguna Beach’s coastal waters.

Jon Lamb, a local diving instructor, said residents are confusing the noise from beach party-goers who aren’t scuba divers with the generally quiet diving community.

“We apologize for what noise we make, but I hope residents can differentiate between the party-ers and the divers,” Lamb said.

Jeff Nadler, director of field operations for the Professional Assn. of Diving Instructors, said regulating divers--and not all other beach-goers--would be unfair. He suggested divers be given another chance to police themselves.