Anti-Seal People Thwarted in La Jolla California

[Jason Vincent]

This article originally appeared at www.greenlifepeople.com

Thank You Governator!

La Jolla Beach Fate Is SEALED! (hopefully…)


Opinion Piece by Jason Vincent


Stupid is as stupid does and if you have been following the mind numbing battle between the seal people and anti-seal people of La Jolla, San Diego, California then you are, like me, no doubt uber relieved that the absurdity has been thwarted for the time being. Hopefully it will stick.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with this colossal waste of time, money and emotions here is a quick conspectus. Casa Beach also known as Children’s Pool, in La Jolla, a picturesque hamlet of San Diego, is home to hundreds of harbor seal pups and their moms. The area itself is a beautiful mixture of beach and rock outcroppings protected from the torrents of the Pacific by a man-made sea wall.

It is the building of that very seawall back in the early part of the 20th century that adds the sinister element to this story. A well-known San Diego philanthropist named Ellen Browning Scripps was generous enough to provide funding to build the seawall in order to help protect bathers whom frequented the beach at that time. She provided the dough as long as the area was used as a swimming hole for the folks of La Jolla. It should be noted that the area was owned by the State of California, not Ellen Scripps.

In the time between the building of the seawall and now, the harbor seals moved in and made it their own. Casa Beach is one of very few areas on the West Coast that serves as a rookery to harbor seals. The seals have been a tourist boon to La Jolla and attract many tens of thousands of people every year. In fact, yours truly upon moving to San Diego from New England, rushed down to Children’s Pool twenty minutes after unpacking! It is a sight to behold for sure.

However, not all La Jolla residents are as enamored with their nautical neighbors. The seals have tarnished the beach with their habitation and it is no longer suitable for humans. They also have a rather hellacious odor at times and if the wind is just right, goodly portions of residents are subject to quite the olfactory insult. This is what has driven a certain constituency to the point of suing in order to have the seals removed and the beach revamped so as to be used by the children of La Jolla.

Ms. Scripps generosity has been blatantly misconstrued and bastardized by this assemblage of misanthropists. Their main defense was to try and mislead everyone involved by saying that Ellen Scripps’s provision was written in stone and the area is not being used as per her wishes. This dastardly crew of logically impaired people went so far as to insinuate that Ms. Scripps had a codicil in her will stating just that fact. There was no such stipulation in her will and even if there was, she didn’t own the seawall or the area, the State of California did and still does, therefore Ms. Scripps would have had no dominion over what happened to the area upon her demise.

The court battle that has ensued since 1997 has been a tenacious one for sure. Both sides, the seal supporters and seal haters have fought tooth and nail for their respective causes. Just recently some insane and obviously senile judge imposed a 72-hour order to remove the seals from Casa Beach. And just what is the manner in which they were to be removed you ask? With recordings of barking dogs played at ear bleeding decibels backed up by the use of water cannons. I know, I know it sounds like a joke but believe it or not it is real (remember Wako?). The cost of this would be upwards of three quarters of a million dollars of taxpayer bucks. Those are government estimates so you should probably figure the actual cost to be at least double that.

Luckily, for all seal advocates, cooler heads prevailed and Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill that turned the decision of what to do with the seals over from the State of California to the City of San Diego with language that allowed the city to turn Casa Beach into a marine mammal park.

It is not over yet and there will be a hearing on the standing case in October but it is widely believed the case will be dismissed. By all accounts, Ellen Scripps would approve of such a measure. She was a lover of nature and left a legacy as such in the Ellen Browning Scripps Institute of Oceanography.

This is an Op-Ed piece so here is where the Op part comes in. I have held off writing about this topic because I get so emotional about it. I love that I can drive five minutes to La Jolla and see how many seals have been born each morning during pupping season. I fully appreciate the fact that my newborn son will someday be able to go down and see nature in all its glory. When we took the pictures for this article, my photographer brought along her 8-year-old twin daughters who squealed with delight and held their noses when they saw the magnificent creatures. It was one of those moments that can’t be bought.

My rage when it comes to the anti-seal clan bordered on uncontrollable for the first year and a half I lived here and I was resolved to the fact that the seals would probably be tossed away in some barbaric manner and I would have to just accept it. I tried hard to see the point of the residents but I could never reconcile it. The more and more I heard their arguments, the more I realized what jackasses we were dealing with here.

To live on the water is a great privilege, but it comes with some responsibility and also some sacrifices. I come from a seaside family. My mom lives in a family house that is well over a hundred years old and located in one of the most picturesque coves in Connecticut. I know I speak for our whole family when I say we feel like the luckiest people in the world. There is a feeling in that house and in that area that cannot be described.

There are also the smells of low tide, mosquitoes at certain times of the years and hurricanes. Those are the things you deal with in order to enjoy such a privilege. It is a small price to pay to say the least.

The homes along Casa Beach are amongst some of the most dear in San Diego and the price tags run in the tens of millions for a good portion of them. Paying that kind of money for a residence may make people feel entitled to a smell-free zone and a place for the kiddies to frolic in the waves without fear of seal contamination. Well folks, this is Southern California and if there is one thing we do not lack it is beaches. Beautiful, long, winding stretches of beaches for miles and miles. Take your kids there.

No matter what you have paid for your fabulous homes, you are only here for a short time and you have choices, you can leave and find a seal-free environment somewhere else. The seals are seals, the only thing they know is a safe, food rich environment to breed and raise their young in is hard to find, and once there, they are going to stay. And, that is as it should be.