Lake Tragedy Gives Rise to Safety Debate : Survival: The search for the last body from Convict Lake is suspended to let divers rest. Opinions on how to prevent future deaths are divided.

CONVICT LAKE, Calif. —  The search for the last of seven people who drowned in this frozen Sierra lake was suspended Thursday to allow divers to rest and organizers to bring in more equipment.

But as the recovery efforts quieted, a debate began over what, if anything, officials can do to guard against future tragedies.

Recovery efforts were curtailed after the Truckee, Nev., Fire District took back the air-propelled boat that had aided teams working on the ice-capped lake, where three teen-agers and four would-be rescuers died after they fell through the ice Monday.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department diving team, which Wednesday recovered five bodies from the lake bottom, also left for home and will be replaced by another team when the search for the body of Dave Meyers, 53, resumes within a few days.

Meyers was a counselor at Camp O’Neal, a residential facility where five of the victims lived or worked. Officials at first believed they had spotted his body with an underwater camera late Wednesday, but now believe they may just have seen his jacket.

In addition to five bodies recovered Wednesday, another was brought to the surface on Tuesday.

The youths who perished in the lake accident were 15-year-olds David C. Sellers of Tulare and Shawn Rayne Diaz of Dinuba, and Ryan McCandless, 13, of Redlands. Also killed were U.S. Forest Service employee Clay Cutter, 31, volunteer firefighter Vidar Anderson, 58, and camp counselor Randy Porter, 36.

Mono County Sheriff-Coroner Martin Strelneck said the search was called off until more equipment and fresh divers could reach the lake.

“We’re regrouping for another attack,” he said. The air-propelled boat was returned to Truckee because it might be needed for rescues in thawing lakes there, Strelneck said.

The deaths have caused a schism of sorts within the community between those arguing that officials should do more to guard against drownings and those who feel that common sense, not signposts and warnings, should govern conduct.

The Sierra is populated with independent, outdoors-oriented people who are familiar with local conditions. But the area also is dependent on tourists, who know little of the dangers inherent in the wild.

Tourism is “drastically important” to the economy of eastern Sierra resort towns, according to Donna Forrester of the Mammoth Lakes tourism office, and officials have portrayed the area as a playground for winter sportsmen. A Convict Lake brochure lists ice-skating as one of the area’s popular winter sports.

The cable television station that serves the area routinely airs a promotion showing skaters enjoying ice-covered Convict Lake on a sunny winter day. The ad was pulled immediately after Monday’s deaths, but returned to the air within a day or so. After a reporter raised questions about the ad on Thursday, station officials said it would be replaced.

Law enforcement officials have fought efforts to open the lake to winter fishing, which, like ice-skating or hiking, would bring people onto the lake. Monday’s tragedy began when teen-aged hikers ventured onto the lake.

An effort by the state Department of Fish and Game to open the eastern Sierra for winter fishing was tabled last year after opponents, including Mono County’s Strelneck, argued that it would raise the risks of accidents like the one Monday.

The current fishing season runs from the last Saturday in April until Oct. 31. The plan would have allowed fishing year-round at Convict and other local lakes.

“My concern was that this would increase the hazardous situation because of the increased number of people walking on the ice,” Strelneck said Thursday.

But he said that tourists and residents should exercise “common sense” before venturing onto lakes. “We have to rely on the intelligence of individuals who come up here to be able to use their heads,” he said.

The weekly newspaper in Mono County, the Review-Herald, Thursday sharply criticized the absence of signs warning of the dangerous conditions at Convict Lake.

“For reasons which are all too obvious and painful, it’s time that the powers that be in the Eastern Sierra take action to assure that the scenario . . . is never replayed,” the paper declared.

“One hopes that these seven people have not died in vain, that we can learn from their misfortune,” the paper added in a second editorial.

Friends of the drowning victims have said that they will work to have signs posted at the lake to prevent another tragedy.

“They definitely need signs out there,” said Tracey Wood, a friend of Clay Cutter, one of the victims.

“I know people are going to be rebellious, but before they advertise a lake for ice-skating they better let people know how thin the ice is.”

Sappell reported from Convict Lake and Decker from Los Angeles. Also contributing to this story was Times staff writer Kevin Roderick at Convict Lake.