Former Malibu resident and marine biologist Daniel R. Frumkes died on Jan. 19 in Manual Antonio, Costa Rica.
Frumkes was born on May 1, 1940 in New York City, and his early childhood years were spent in Georgia. He grew up in Los Angeles, where he attended Hamilton High School and graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara.
“He was passionate about fisheries, was an avid outdoorsman and was an accomplished builder and craftsman,” a loved one said.
Frumkes was a lifelong activist for marine conservation and leaves behind a legacy of protections for California marine habitat. Dan championed California Prop 132 (1990), which banned the use of gill nets within three miles of the coast and provided for the establishment of four new marine ecological reserves. This paved the way for the Point Dume Marine Reserve in 2010. His innovative thinking led him to work with American Sport Fishing and oil companies to foster “Rigs to Reefs,” the decommissioning and removal of oil and gas platforms to provide fish habitat. With John Stevens, an environmental biologist of Occidental College, Frumkes participated in the Vantana Project, a study of halibut mortality. He proposed a moratorium on pelagic long line and gill net fishing to restore Costa Rica fisheries.
In recent years, Frumkes divided his time between Costa Rica and Corvallis, Oregon. He is survived by his wife, Jeannette Chacon Mena; his son, Shanone Frumkes (Jennifer); Shanone’s mother, Marilyn Dove; his granddaughter, Saige Frumkes; his brother, Peter Frumkes (Linda); and his niece, Lisa Frumkes.