Point Loma Maritime Services owner Ralph Botticelli, 40, and his employees - Alan Schlange, 38, and Scott Caslin, 32 - have been charged with seven misdemeanor counts, including animal cruelty, in connection with the June 2006 incident.

According to prosecutors, Schlange and Caslin approached a colony of fragile and rare nesting terns on two rock barges anchored in the harbor, and then forced the birds into the water - where hundreds of them drowned.

The men, who face up to a year in jail for each count, have not yet entered pleas. Their Long Beach Superior Court arraignment has been rescheduled to June 28.

Speaking outside Commissioner George Kalinski's courtroom Wednesday, Schlange's attorney, T. Edward Welbourn, said the case was borne out of a lack of communication - not malice.

"They feel very bad that any birds died," Welbourn said. "They had no ill will."

Welbourn described the workers as environmentally conscious fishermen who inadvertently scared the birds off a barge they had intended to tow to Santa Barbara. He said they tried in vain to fish the birds out of the water.

"Once they realized what was going on, they were trying to save the birds," Welbourn said. "These guys grew up fishing and respecting the water and the power of it. They have a love for (the ocean) and a love for the animals. It's not like they're uncaring."

He said the case boiled down to an unfortunate situation that had been "blown out of proportion."

And, as for reports that the men used high-pressure hoses to spray the nesting birds from the barge, Welbourn said: "None of that happened, by any means."

The death of the baby birds, found washed up on the Long Beach shoreline over several days beginning on June 29, 2006, sparked an outcry among authorities and environmentalists.

The birds were Caspian and elegant terns - species that are protected under international law but not considered endangered. Their nests had drawn publicity and tourism to the harbor in the days preceding the incident.

The arrest came after an unprecedented seven-month investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game.

While Botticelli has been quoted as saying that his workers made "an honest and unfortunate mistake," environmentalists have said the men, who had no right to take the private barges in the first place, must have hurled some of the skittish birds into the water because some of the terns were still too young to walk to the barge's edge and jump off themselves.

Wendy Thomas Russell can be reached at wendy.Russel@prestelegram.com or (562) 499-1272.