San Francisco sues owners of ship over oil spill - City seeks damages for costs such as wages and lost tourism revenue.

City Atty. Dennis Herrera filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court against Regal Stone Ltd. and several other firms that own the Cosco Busan, saying the accident was "wholly avoidable" and had caused "more injury to the San Francisco Bay Area than we can yet begin to fathom."

Also named in the suit is the local bar pilot, John Cota, who was at the helm when the 900-foot ship smacked one of the bridge columns in heavy fog on the morning of Nov. 7.

Cota has been accused of negligence for setting out with apparently balky navigational systems, traveling too fast and failing to heed a Coast Guard warning to alter his course.

The city seeks damages for the costs of the spill to San Francisco, including overtime pay for employees, volunteer training, lost fishing and tourism revenue, and ecological effects, including the death of at least 2,200 birds.

It also seeks punitive damages for failing to respond swiftly and adequately to the spill, which within days spread around the bay and outside the Golden Gate.

The federal government filed suit Nov. 30 in U.S. District Court, and on Monday three crab fishermen associations took steps toward a legal battle with the ship's owners to recoup profits lost when the oil spill caused a two-week shutdown of the commercial crab season.

Larry Collins, a San Francisco crab fisherman, said the shutdown "ruined us" by keeping the bay's crab boats off the water at a time when they normally would haul in 70% of their catch -- and most of their profits.

Most years, the bay fleet has the West Coast market to itself around the Thanksgiving holidays because crab fishing is closed to rivals from Mendocino north into Oregon and Washington.

"We lost our Thanksgiving market, when we make most our money because we're the only ones open," Collins said.

Attorneys for the fishermen negotiated with the ship's insurance company to set up a fund making each fishing boat eligible for $10,000 in economic relief. But that, Collins said, "is only a down payment," and he said the fleet would go to court if necessary.

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eric.bailey@latimes.com