Learn about company that owned the dive boat that caught fire off Santa Cruz
Arlene Martinez | Ventura County Star
Sep 2, 2019 | Updated 12:08 p.m. PT Sep 3, 2019

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Jody Fritts has gone on dives all over the world, but nowhere does he plummet into waters more frequently than near his Oxnard home.

Around the Channel Islands, dubbed the Galapagos of North America, there are sea bass, “300 to 400 pound gentle giants that will come right up to you,” a rock reef brimming with life, lobsters, lemon sharks, said Fritts, 59.

Beneath the water, he gets a feeling of being a part of something much bigger than himself.

On Monday morning, hours after a fatal fire aboard a diving boat led to the deaths of at least four people and possibly dozens more, what Fritts felt was pain, heartache, shock.

“Everybody who dives is hurting right now,” he said.

...Fritts was especially shaken because he had gone diving from Conception, owned by Truth Aquatics out of Santa Barbara Harbor, more than a dozen times before. In fact, he’d debated checking out the boat’s schedule this weekend before deciding to spend the long weekend with family.

It could have just as easily been him aboard that boat, he said. He wondered why and how the boat could have caught on fire.

Other experiences with Truth Aquatics

Truth Aquatics is a Santa Barbara-based company founded in 1974 and owned by Glen Fritzler. For Labor Day weekend, it had been chartered by Worldwide Diving Adventures, which says on its website that it has been taking divers on such expeditions since the 1970s, according to The Associated Press.

The Conception is one of a fleet of three, including the Truth Aquatics’ first vessel Truth and the Vision, which was added in 1985.

At Santa Barbara Harbor, a Truth Aquatics staff member said Monday morning that the company was not commenting at this time.