Unhappy Civics Lesson for Youthful Sponsors : Banana Slug Squashed as State Mollusk

The boys and girls of a Campfire club in Redwood City, who as an education project sponsored legislation to make the banana slug the official state mollusk, got an unhappy lesson in civics Friday when the Senate killed their bill.

The children, mostly 8-year-olds, wanted to promote the lowly creature to the statusof a state symbol as part of their club’s efforts to learn more about government and natural resources. They persuaded Assemblyman Byron D. Sher (D-Palo Alto) to introduce the bill.

They wanted the banana slug enshrined with such other state symbols as the California dog-face butterfly, the official insect;serpentine, the official rock,and desert tortoise, the official reptile.

The Assembly narrowly passed the bill last March. But it was squashed by the Senate on Friday, despite efforts of banana slug defenders to portray it as a protector of vulnerable seedlings in coastal redwood forests, a hungry consumer of poison oak and a vital link in the ecological chain.

The bill failed on an 18-13 vote, three short of the 21-vote majority required in the Senate. However, the Senate agreed to reconsider its action another day.

Sen. Becky Morgan (R-Los Altos Hills) called the “simple, humble” banana slug an important environmental asset because it eats virtually any natural enemy of redwood seedlings and its droppings help fertilize the forest.

But some senators complained in righteous oratory that such bills trivialize the legislative process. Others said the long banana-shaped, golden-yellow slug would be inappropriate as the state mollusk and argued that the red abalone would be more suitable.

“This is one of those items that makes you wonder why we are here,” retiring Sen. Jim Ellis (R-San Diego) told his colleagues. “It’s embarrassing, really.”

Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles), a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, whose mascot is the banana slug, also urged passage of the bill. But fellow UC Santa Cruz alumnus Sen. John Doolittle (R-Rocklin) said he “found this thing repulsive as I walked the pathways” of the campus.

Sen. Dan McCorquodale (D-San Jose) said he believes that the Senate long ago abandoned making decisions “based on beauty.” And, noting that a terrarium near Doolittle’s desk, containing several banana slugs, he asked: “Can you imagine how Sen. Doolittle looks to them?”

Another opponent, Sen. Don Rogers (R-Bakersfield), said it is “sad . . . and a shame” that the Campfire club kids came to the Legislature with a bill that lacked importance and that the proposal has disturbed California importers of bananas.

He said the importers “are a little bit upset to have this thing, this mollusk, associated with a delicious fruit like the banana.”

“These things are not only not edible, but they are horrible. I’ve never tasted one but I understand they are so salty that they can’t be used for anything,” he said.