Rimmon C. Fay, a marine scientist and longtime Venice Beach lifeguard who devoted his life to saving the Santa Monica Bay from pollution and other assaults, has died. He was 78.
Fay died of a heart attack at Berkley West Convalescent Hospital in Santa Monica on Tuesday after a series of strokes that had left him incapacitated in recent years.
A UCLA-trained biochemist and professional diver who collected specimens for biomedical research, Fay focused public attention on industrial discharges of the pesticide DDT off the Palos Verdes peninsula that made fish too toxic to eat and nearly drove the California brown pelican to extinction. He was among the first to call for Los Angeles to halt dumping of sewage sludge, a once-quixotic quest that drew kindred souls in the 1980s who joined with him to launch the movement to clean up coastal waters.
He spent six years as a state coastal commissioner, until complaints to Sacramento leaders about his uncompromising anti-growth attitude and open outrage about damaging coastal wetlands and beachfront got him fired. He was replaced on the panel by a developer.
Admirers often likened Fay to John Steinbeck's friend and drinking companion, Edward F. Ricketts, a pioneer of marine ecology who inspired the character "Doc" in the novel "Cannery Row."
"He was so much like Doc Ricketts," said Dorothy Green, who joined with Fay and others to launch the nonprofit group Heal the Bay. "He earned his living collecting animals for research. He drank too much. He would go out diving at night -- alone."
Fay supplied sea creatures, aquarium tanks and advice during the production of the 1982 movie of "Cannery Row," starring Nick Nolte and Debra Winger. His son, Douglas, has a vivid recollection of his beaming father on the movie set: "He was puffing on his cigars. That was one of the best times."
Fay also spent much of his life, after his divorce in 1975, living and sleeping in his laboratory, located first in Venice, then in Inglewood and Port Hueneme.
Far more comfortable in a wetsuit than a dress shirt and jacket, Fay logged thousands of hours prowling the seafloor doing his own research and collecting specimens.
"He has probably spent more time underwater than any man on the planet," said Harold Dunnigan, a former Navy diver and retired Los Angeles County lifeguard who taught Fay how to dive in 1955. Dunnigan said he could easily out-compete Fay in swimming contests, but underwater, few could keep up with him. "He was at one with the ocean."
