A South Kitsap man’s list of accomplishments reads a bit like a stuntman’s resumé.

Bela Kovacs says he was a swimmer on the 1956 Hungarian Olympic team. A longtime underwater welder, he says he “wrote the book” on underwater welding practices. Famed treasure hunter Mel Fisher offered Kovacs a spot on one of his expeditions. And in his prime, he was a world-class kayaker.

Oh, and Kovacs spends his spare time hunting for gold. Which he finds with regularity.

“Knowledge is so important,” he said, emphasizing that with experience comes knowledge.

It’s  72-year-old Kovacs’ most recent passion that motivates most of his efforts. A fit, buff man, Kovacs has jumped into searching for gold much like he has jumped in to his other passions.

Head over heels.

“I want to take my grandchildren out on the beaches. They get excited,” he said. “It’s like an Easter egg hunt, for us and them.”

He and his wife, Barbara, first bought a gold prospecting kit after seeing an infomercial 15 years ago. Since then he has turned hunting for gold into a lifestyle.

He owns a plot of land in Idaho that he uses strictly for mining. He was a board member of the Bedrock Prospectors Club, an organization of small-scale miners based in Puyallup. An avid tinkerer, Kovacs has an array of homemade river dredgers and rock crushers that fill the workshop behind his residence on Sedgwick Road.

One of his machines has even drawn the interest of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Kovacs constructed a sand dredger, a device that sucks in sand through a hose and filters it mechanically to search for flakes of gold. Kovacs calls the device — akin to a large Shop-Vac – an efficient way to look for the precious metal.

However, he’s only used his sandsucker a few times. Why? Because, he claims, the Department of Fish and Wildlife won’t allow its use on state beaches.

“They want to stop us,” he said. “It has no impact on beaches or rivers. But they figure we’re going to step on unborn fish.”

The prospecting couple ride a hard line when it comes to their rights as miners.

“We aren’t recreational prospectors,” Barbara Kovacs said. “We are small-scale miners, and we are protected by the law.”

The Kovacs frequently reference the General Mining Act of 1872, old mining legislation that essentially allows anyone who stakes a claim to mine as they please. The law, called “antiquated” by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 2001, is touted by miners who despise government regulations, said Stephan Kalinowski, the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s regional habitat program manager for coastal counties.

“There are federal laws associated with mining that if someone sets up a claim, they can go mine,” he said. “We have a few people that don’t want any type of regulation.”

According to Kalinowski, the Kovacs could use their sand dredger to collect gold on Washington beaches — but they need to get a permit first.

While beach mining always has been technically illegal, Kalinowski and DFW didn’t go after beach miners for many years. Recently though, the agency started issuing free permits after a two-year pilot program and study concluded earlier this year. While the study was inconclusive on the long-term effects beach mining has on creatures such as razor clams and small fish, Kalinowski believes the mining occurs on such a small scale that any potential damage to beaches would be minimal.

“We’ve issued about 35 to 40 permits in the last couple of months,” he said. “We don’t want to prevent anyone from doing anything they can legally do, we just want to make sure they do it within the law.”

But the Kovacs don’t want to apply for a permit. Their interpretation of the DFW’s environmental impact study is that small-scale mining doesn’t harm the beaches.

The DFW requirement that miners get a permit is another example of government overregulation, Kovacs said, something that has plagued small-scale miners with increasing regularity.

“You never know what could happen if you get in to a wrong area. With the cost of a permit and the fines they can hand out, it gets really expensive.”

Kovacs said he’s spent upwards of $20,000 on mining equipment, and his meager returns would be even further diminished by the regulation.

“We are hesitant to get a permit,” Barbara Kovacs said. “People that build sandcastles on the beach don’t have to get permits. We have about as much impact as that.”