Seabird death inquiry completed

More than 500 terns -- slim seabirds related to gulls but in this case mostly too young to fly -- plummeted off two privately owned barges in the Long Beach Harbor in late June.

Twenty-five birds survived what a barge owner called an unfortunate mistake and what environmentalists across the country called "Terngate."

Many environmentalists had said state and federal wildlife officials should have realized that the barges had, over time, become a tern nesting site worthy of protection. They had also grown frustrated with the length of the inquiry.

"The case required a lengthy investigation," said Lt. Kent Smirl of the California Department of Fish and Game. "But it's not going away. We've done an excellent investigation, one of the best the department has ever done in Long Beach."

Smirl, whose agency led the probe that also involved the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said he expects charges to be filed by Long Beach prosecutors.

Long Beach city prosecutor John Fentis declined to comment.

Smirl's office declined to identify who might be charged or the owner of the barges.

However, in an interview Wednesday, Ralph Botticelli, owner of San Diego-based Point Loma Maritime Services, said the incident was "all an honest and unfortunate mistake."

His company was hired to move two barges with a tugboat to Santa Barbara for a fireworks display.

Initial reports suggested that the tugboat crew had used high-pressure hoses to destroy the nesting Caspian and elegant terns, which had become a tourist attraction for cruise ship operators.

The delicate, skittish birds are protected under federal law, authorities said, and it is a misdemeanor to disturb them. Animal cruelty is a felony in California.

The deaths brought an end to a significant colony of terns established on barges that for months had been moored hundreds of yards offshore.

But Botticelli, 39, said neither the barges nor his tugboat were equipped with "steam cleaners or high-pressure hoses" for the moving operation.

As he described it, the incident began when his crew -- a captain and a deckhand -- unintentionally "spooked the birds" with their approach.