San Diego Seals Win Reprieve, For Now

(CBS/AP)  The seals will not be evicted, for the time being.

A judge has delayed his order to remove a harbor seal colony from a sheltered beach cove after the governor signed a bill that could let them remain.

Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann on Thursday stayed his order just before the deadline expired, pending an October hearing. Earlier this week the judge gave San Diego 72 hours to begin dispersing hundreds of federally protected harbor seals from a beach in La Jolla.

But the city asked the judge to stay his order after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger signed a bill permitting the cove to be used as a marine mammal park.

The city has been in a years-long battle over whether the cove known as Children's Pool must be reserved for children.

A seawall was built in 1931 by a local philanthropist, Ellen Browning Scripps, to create a cove where children could safely play in the surf. The Children's Pool (a.k.a. Casa beach) was used for years by kids until harbor seals took over the site in the 1990s.

The seals use the sheltered area to sleep, nurse pups and molt. Though the beach is closed to people, the seawall provides visitors a vantage point for observing seal behavior.

While some have fought to return the beach to its purpose as a bathing area for children, others are just as adamant about maintaining the cove as a seal sanctuary.

However, a new law by State Senator Christine Kehoe would allow the beach (which is on state land) to also serve as a marine mammal habitat.

"I'm grateful for the governor's quick signing of this legislation and hopefully it will bring some calm to an overheated discussion," Kehoe said in a statement. "Our community has struggled through this debate for more than 16 years and now the future use of the Children's Pool rests with the San Diego City Council - as it rightfully should."

A poll released last month by Competitive Edge Research & Communication revealed that more than 60% of San Diego adults wanted the seals to be left alone, versus 25% who wanted them gone. The poll also found seven percent fewer adults would visit the cove this summer if the seals were no longer there.

Similarly, a 2007 Zogby poll found the seals had 81% backing from the public.

(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

Ginny Uybungco, of Friends of the La Jolla Seals, told CBS Affiliate KFMB that the seal cove is a boon to the city's economy.

"Because this is not just about the swimming, it's about everybody who comes to visit the seals. And if there are no seals, we have no tourists," Uybungco said. "In a slowing economy, we need people to come there and sponsor a wonderful treasure that the city offers."

The court battle began in 2006 when Valerie O'Sullivan filed a lawsuit demanding the seals be removed and a swimming area restored to its "intended beneficiaries."

Since the State Supreme Court upheld in 2007 an appeals court decision that the beach should be restored to accommodate humans, tensions have risen between both sides of the debate.

Friends of the Childrens' Pool, which advocates for the return of the cove to people, decries the pollution from animal waste and warns of the "violent" tactics of animal activists.

Supporters of the pinnipeds, meanwhile, have posted videos on YouTube showing harassment of the seals, including one man seeking to establish himself as "the alpha animal on that beach."

Should the city be forced to drive seals from the cove, officials said the long-term plan - using a recording of dogs barking - would cost an estimated $688,000. San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said the seal dispersal plan would not likely improve water quality.

[alexander4747]

Hello every one I wanted to write how i felt about with the La Jolla, seals in San Diego California Because I think that there are a lot of people who are really missing what is going on here. There are a lot of different stories that we hear and we take the idea that the news has all the right answers.


Many of us sit at home and laugh at the story and what is happening abut the seals and this is far from a laughing story.
In my opinion, there is a lot more behind the story than what we are hearing and seeing on the news. Couple of facts that I want to bring out. As we all know the state of California is looking at a $26.3 billion in the hole. And I wonder dose the state of California know how to do math?



These are the number's that are really to hard under stand and the reason how it got so far out of hand I want to bring out these numbers because of the future children and children of today that are going to pay because of greed of the states representatives.
These are the number's $6 billion from schools,3 billion from colleges,1.2 billion from prisons. And yet we are worried about some seals that are taking up a spot on a beach when there are a lot of other beaches ware kids can swim.


In the san Diego paper City Attorney Jan Goldsmith cited the expense to the city to remove the seals and then reconfigure the Children's Pool in his arguments to Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann. He said the city cannot spend its money to "run up and down the beach" shooing away the seals and to remove police officers from street patrol to provide security. "The expense is too much," Goldsmith said. "It will drain our treasury."
This statement was took by Debby backer and Susan Shroder by The San Diego Paper

And yet this action of words of the city was not enough to stop this hearing knowing the city was not wanting to go on because of the money the city dose not have .

If you look at it from a common scene of it! Approximately 80,000 people a month come and see the seal in La Jolla, that is a lot of people and I can't believe the businesses are not crying out. I know if I had a business I would be happy to have those numbers coming threw my front door.

Some day we might wake up and see that unless we start wakening up to these kinds of the future we are not going to have much of a future to wake up to.

This is the answer: that I believe would be the best thing so the beaches could still be taken care of. I would charge the tourist three dollars to see the seals as long as they wanted in a day's time. And I would take that money and have a over see committee to make sure that this money was going to be used for the beach in La Jolla.

I hope that this will come to an end and that the seals who continue to have a home that they are going to be able to enjoy because god knows the beaches and the animals were here for us to enjoy.

Thank you for reading my article.

Alexander P. Duncan

[dnamj]

Umm, aren't there enough other places for the brats to play? Jeez.

[socal619e]

As someone who was born, raised, and, unlike some others (ie: CarlR609), educated in San Diego, I can't believe some of the things that I am reading on here. First of all, the sea belongs to sea animals, of which mankind certainly is not. As cs4466 said, mankind has taken so much from nature and now, that nature has decided to take a little of it back, we get all up in arms and threaten to drive the seals back into the sea. For crying out loud, there are plenty of places for children to swim and there is no reason why it has to be in this cove. If the seals, for whatever reason, have taken a liking to this particular section, where is the harm in letting them stay. And if parents are worried about these "temperamental beasts," these "giant fleabags...poop(ing) in the water, then I have some advise: take your children to a pool! Leave the beach to true San Diegans who understand and appreciate nature in all its beauty.

[cs4466]

Man has taken so much from the natural kingdom. Time to give something back. Let the seals have the habitat. Humans can create habitats anywhere - seals cannot. Time for us to prove that we are the paragon of animals and exhibit the compassion that makes us uniquely human.

[MaxVocalz]

If left to us citizens of San Diego, the majority would vote to let the seals stay. My girls love the seals. I enjoy watching them as well. There is definitely no shortage of safe places for children to swim in San Diego. On the south side of the sea wall is public beach access only moments from Children's Pool. Let's put this behind us and leave the seals alone.
Vigilant parenting is required when children are in or around any depth of water. Make sure your children can swim.

[venus_2137]

...Okay, swim in a pool! I can't believe that people in the community are trying to fight this!! It is SAD AND DEPRESSING! For beginner or novice swimmers, there are swimming pools (guess what, swimming pools have NO tides or currents)! Besides, there are tons of beaches in the San Diego area that are made for swimming. The ocean is the seals natural habitat. As a matter of fact, humans have developed/taken so much of the animal kingdom's territory already, we have to fight for those who have no say. Also, we should be appreciating the animals that are currently exsisting in the world right now, because the fact of the matter is WE ARE KILLING THEM OFF by not allowing them to reproduce and care for their young to perpetuate their need in the ocean. We should be teaching our children to understand and appreciate that fact at the least !!!

[jasperrdm]

.... their native habitat,.... it is not read the line.
.. seawall was built in 1931 by a local philanthropist, Ellen Browning Scripps, to create a cove where children could safely lay in the surf. ....
So it a man made habitat which nature adapted to.

[SusanStoHelit]

We've got a ton of beach areas for people - letting the seals have this one is a great idea. And it really is far cooler to let kids see a bunch of seals in their native habitat, than to have yet another ordinary beach. I've been there - there's always a crowd of people watching the seals. And there's plenty of other beaches - including another one sheltered like this one, for the people.