Diver to sign book

Diver Tom Kendrick will give a special presentation on the Cali- fornia sea urchin fishing industry at 7 p.m. Thurs., Oct. 5 in the Munger Theater of the Santa Bar- bara Maritime Museum, 113 Har- bor Way, Ste. 190.

Kendrick will discuss the highs and lows of the sea urchin fishing industry with a focus on the sea ur- chin boom during the mid-eighties. He will touch on the people, places and obstacles he encountered dur- ing his 22 years as an urchin diver.

A book signing of Kendrick's book, "Bluewater Gold Rush: The Odyssey of a California Sea Urchin Diver," published by Azalea Creek, will follow the lecture.

Tickets are $6 for museum mem- bers and $8 for general admission. Kendrick's book follows a

group of underwater pioneers from 1978 through 1996, chronicling the adventure, humor and tragedy of the people involved in this fascinat- ing way of life.

Kendrick, 54, broke into the ur- chin diving industry as an urchin boat deckhand in 1978 and began diving a year later. He spent 22 years on the urchin boats, as every- thing from a tender to captain of his own vessel. His professional career as an urchin diver during the mid- '80s took him from the Channel Is- lands to the coasts of Mendocino and Sonoma, the Farallon Islands, Oregon, Washington, Mexico and Alaska.

For more information, call (805) 962-8404, or e-mail museum@sbmm.org, or visit www.sbmm.org.