Fish

Fourteen-year-old Mervyn Artis said that once he spotted the baby, he tried to signal his teen-age companion not to shoot the driver of the fish truck. The two boys were planning to rob a drug house when they spotted a fish truck at 55th and Ridgewood streets on Nov. 2 and switched their plan, according to Artis. "We decided to stick up the fish truck," he said in a statement to Homicide Detective Francis Ansel, read during yesterday's preliminary hearing for Artis. Assistant District Attorney Edward Cameron said the driver of the truck, Suzette Richardson, 23, lost her life when she was shot in the chest during the robbery attempt about 12:45 p.m. The victim's 4-year-old son and a 17- year-old girl escaped injury as they sat in the truck.

It's not a bad life being a brown trout in Valley Creek, as far as scientists can tell - but it could be better. Levels of ammonia in the creek block the fish from doing what comes naturally - swimming upstream to spawn. Biologists are puzzled about the source of the ammonia, usually found in sewage waste. More study is needed to determine the health of Valley Creek, which flows through Valley Forge National Historical Park into the Schuylkill near Washington's headquarters.

It was a gorgeous day for racing on the Schuylkill yesterday, with the sun shining and water sparkling - and it was all the more exhilarating after a health advisory that nearly threatened to keep rowers on dry land. The 78 races in the Schuylkill Navy Regatta were going "superbly," Clete Graham, commodore of the Schuylkill Navy, said as he sat on the awards grandstand by the Columbia Bridge. "There were no qualms, no hesitations. It was a beautiful day. " About 600 athletes from 42 clubs came out. They were thrilled to compete, and didn't see any signs of a Montgomery County fish kill, Graham said.

Kerry Marshall, convicted last week of the robbery and murder of a Port Richmond fish vendor in front of her 4-year-old son, was sentenced yesterday to life in prison. A Common Pleas Court jury returned with that decision after several hours of deliberation Monday and yesterday. Marshall was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of Suzette Richardson, 23, who was killed by a single gunshot wound to her heart Nov. 2, 1988, as she sold fish from her truck at 55th Street and Ridgewood Avenue in the city's Kingsessing section.

Into the frying pan with you, you boring, brown New Jersey fish. The Thomas H. Kean New Jersey State Aquarium in Camden is going tropical. That's right. The $52 million aquarium, which opened three years ago with its displays of fish mostly native to the region, is expanding to include more brightly colored specimens. Scheduled to open July 1, the $4 million "Ocean Base Atlantic" exhibit will feature a Caribbean beach, complete with multi-colored birds, a tropical shipwreck teeming with marine life, as well as other exotic offerings.

Policing wetlands may end up swamping staff members of the Chester County Conservation District with more work than they can handle. For that reason, the district's board of directors Thursday night backed away from committing to an arrangement that would deputize the staff to handle the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's usual role in wetlands protection in Chester County. "I'm concerned about the amount of time involved," board member Robert G. Struble Jr. said after the meeting.

They were looking for a drug house to rob, said 16-year-old Mervyn Artis. Then they saw the fish truck at 55th Street and Ridgewood Avenue. So Artis said he and 18-year-old Kerry Marshall changed their plan. They would rob the fish woman. As it turned out, they killed Suzette Richardson, 23. She was shot in the chest trying to resist the robbery. The victim's 4-year-old son and a 17-year- old girl escaped injury as they sat in the truck on Nov. 2, 1989. Yesterday, a Common Pleas jury convicted Marshall, of Pentridge Street near 55th, of first-degree murder.

Reinventing Philadelphia's century-old oyster house tradition isn't an easy thing to do. But the newly transformed Sansom Street Oyster House proves that it is an undertaking well worthwhile. So many of the great restaurant names have faded into history since the early 1900s when the Delaware River basin was still pristine and every local parish had an oyster house. And of the few old fish houses that have remained, many have withered to a shadow of their former greatness. How fortunate for Mary and "Pa" Kelly that the legacy of Kelly's on Mole Street, which they started in 1901, has been left in the curatorial hands of David Mink.

In a back-to-the-future move that will rattle memories and taste buds for virtually every Catholic over 35, the U.S. bishops will be studying a return to - gasp! - meatless Fridays. The bishops' purpose is twofold and serious: to reinforce Fridays as a day of penitence "to combat a culture of death," and to improve Catholic unity. They agreed by unanimous voice vote Monday to study the issue for a year, and make a decision in November 1998. Any effort to restore a practice that hasn't been mandatory since 1966 would be good news for Janet Anastasi, a staunch Catholic whose family has been selling fish at the Italian Market for four generations.

The man promised. And when the President of the United States gives his word, expect him to keep it. George Bush caught a fish yesterday, the last day of his vacation. On Thursday, the President, fishless in nearly three weeks of trying and sounding a bit defensive, promised reporters that his luck was going to change before he headed from Maine back to Washington. He took on the familiar read- my-lips tone when he said that by Monday, "I guarantee you, I positively guarantee you, that this jinx will be broken.