San Diegans angry over Children’s Pool seals issue

LA JOLLA - Neither the pro-seal group or the pro-”children’s cove” are happy with the way city leaders have handled the battle over the Children’s Pool in La Jolla.

Joe Clary is a La Jolla Resident and would like to see the seals stay. He says, “It just seems rather incredulous that the city would be even considering this at this time.”

Andrew Bergeron, also a La Jolla resident, can’t understand why the city has offered such an expensive plan to chase away the seals who have made the cove their home. “It’s just so ridiculous that the city needs money and that they’re going to spend money on dispersing something that attracts tourists.”

The seal issue was the hot topic Thursday at a forum at the La Jolla Recreation Center on Prospect Street.

At a cost of nearly $700,000 the city wants to use a loudspeaker that emanates a barking dog sound and have police personnel on site to protect the person carrying the device.
Assistant Police Chief Boyd Long shared the police perspective. “The Police Department is committed to safety and will be there regardless of the outcome of this court hearing on the 15th. Our intent is to make sure everybody is peaceable and that everybody is safe during this event.”

The city councilmember for the district is Sherri Lightner. She began the meeting at the Rec Center by stating “this meeting is going to end at 7pm if not sooner so that we can get home to our families.”

Lightner then refused to answer any questions from the crowd or give any insight into her position.

Andrew Bergeron attended the meeting and said, “She seems to want to avoid the issue entirely.”

San Diego 6 News learned that may not be the case. Lightner’s office issued a statement that said the councilmember would like to turn the Children’s Cove into a Dog Beach. She is offering that as a solution to disperse the seals.

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SAN DIEGO - A plan to use barking dogs to chase off seals in La Jolla is raising some eyebrows.

From 6 a.m. until sundown, the city will start unleashing some recorded canines on the roughly 200 harbor seals that have taken over Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla in the hope the barking will run off the normally loved marine mammals.

But a judge will have to hash out certain issues surrounding the plan on Wednesday before city officials can commence with their sonic plan of attack.

“The idea is rather appalling,” Lelia Kelly, who lives in the Casa de Manana retirement community near the beach, said. “I think that would be a true interference to the peace and beauty at the Oceanside home where I live and would be an unnatural distraction. I don’t like the idea at all.”

Harbor seals, which must get out of the water at times to regulate their body heat, started taking over the beach in the late 1990s. By 1997, diving in the area was banned due to coliform bacteria linked to the seals.

The pupping season just ended May 15, giving city officials the go-ahead to begin their campaign. If the recorded dog barking is a nonstarter, the city would start spraying the seals with water to get them to clear out, the Union-Tribune reported.

The city has pegged the annual cost at $688,934.

“The dispersal of seals is almost certain to become a national media event, drawing to San Diego crowds of sightseers, news helicopters and animal rights advocates who may arrive by land or sea to protest the seal dispersal,” according to the city’s proposal.

Spraying water could work, Tina Fahy, a biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Long Beach said. She was less certain about the dog noises.

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“If it’s constant barking sounds, they start to just adjust to it. I don’t think that is going to work,” she said. “These animals habituate very easily. . . . I see it as being more of an annoyance to humans in the area.”

About four years ago, a Superior Court judge ordered San Diego to reduce bacterial contamination at Children’s Pool so it could become a swimming area again — as it was designated by state law in 1931.

In February, the San Diego City Council asked the state Legislature to pass legislation allowing it to decide on whether the seals stay or go.

Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, sponsored a bill that has passed the Senate and is awaiting final action in the Assembly.

“I think we have a pretty good shot at stalling this at least until the state law would go into effect,” Pease said. “It’s basically just a race against the clock.”

Jeff Powers reports for San Diego 6 CW where this story originally appeared.

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This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under Environment, Politics & Government . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.