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Background and Controversy - Latest Casa Beach News February 3, 2012 Bryan Pease, our lawyer, said "The process is taking a lot longer that it's supposed to, but at least it's back under way as opposed to just being permanently stalled". How you can help: Remind them that the seal mothers and pups need a safe and secure place for that important time. The dialogue to be something like: "Hello Council Member _________. "The San Diego City Council will vote in March to approve funding to close the Children's Pool beach during the pupping season. I urge you to vote for this item in the revised budget. San Diego's harbor seals pupping season is between December 15 to May 15. It is vital that the seals have protection from humans intrusion to give mothers and pups a safe and secure place to bring up their young during these crucial months. A closed beach would provide this. " And please come down to see this wonderful event that is happening right now. We have two pups so far....and we are expecting many more. District 1 - Sherri Lightner -619-236-6611 District 2 - Kevin Faulconer - 619-236-6622 District 3 - Todd Gloria - 619-236-6633 District 4 - Anthony Young - 619-236-6644 District 5 - Carl DeMaio - 619-236-6655 District 6 - Lorie Zapf - 619-236-6616 District 7 - Marti Emerald - 236-6677 District 8 - David Alvarez - 236-6688 Thanks for your help everybody. January 6, 2012 We should keep demanding beach closure from National Marine Fishing Service on the basis that only the federal gov't. can cut through the red tape to support what the local gov't. already voted for. Let Monica.DeAngelis@Noaa.gov know you support this. The goal of the lawsuit would be to require the mayor to do his job and implement the resolution passed by the City council that he signed. I think this lawsuit can really crystallize for the public what's going on here though, which is that a resolution was passed and then ignored. “Ethics is knowing the difference between knowing what you have the right to do and what is right to do.” Former Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart December 19, 2011 The rope is understood to be a guideline to respect the late pregnancy female seals need for space and has never closed off the beach. The divers have persuaded the City to shorten the length of the rope barrier, thus opening up more easy access to full beach use advocates and unaware visitors. There have already been three early pup deaths this year, probably due to the stress of the resulting frequent harassment and excessive proximity of too many people all during the day and night. Please Help!
To summarize what you will see there, the situation at the beach is dire! December 15, 2011 Brian confirmed that the City Council had voted in May of 2010 to close the beach during pupping season, but that the follow through had stalled due to red tape and a lack of funding in the city coffers. Development Services has estimated that the closure permits and staff time would be an estimated $25,000 to $50,000., which has not been funded. When the pupping season ends, the rope is liable to be removed unless the California Coastal Commission hearing, scheduled for early March, authorizes the year round rope as approved by the City Council at the same time as the pupping season rope. It was a beautiful day and the sight of an empty beach with about 30 seals sleeping peacefully was a memorable sight.
November 7, 2011
June 3, 2011 The issue of whether to keep the rope up year-round, instead of just during the seals’ pupping months, will come back to court on July 15. However, Foster suggested that APRL which is suing the city, has an uphill battle in proving that the city’s Planning Commission overstepped its authority by denying a coastal development permit in December. “The court’s job is to determine whether there’s been an abuse of discretion,” Foster said. “In this case, based on my preliminary view, there is evidence that would support the Planning Commission’s finding.” Her ruling is the latest chapter in a long-running fight between environmentalists and animal-rights activists who want to protect the seals and those seeking greater access to the beach. At the end of Friday’s 75-minute hearing, Foster said she based her ruling on what she believes has been the status quo at Children’s Pool — that no rope barrier is maintained during the non-pupping season. The rope was to be in place December 15 through May 15. “The court cannot make a finding that there will be irreparable harm in this case to the seals,” Foster said. “The entire history of the seals at the Children’s Pool is that there hasn’t been a rope, and the seals seem to be OK.” San Diego uses the rope to help safeguard nursing seals, who can become skittish when disturbed and abandon their pups. The city’s Planning Commission had decided that a request by various seal supporters for the rope to stay up permanently didn’t meet specific requirements for issuing a coastal development permit. The commission’s decision came after the City Council asked the mayor last year to have the rope remain year-round. The mayor sent the request through the standard permit process, which involved the commission when a Hearing Officer approved the year round placement. Dorota Valli, campaign manager for SealWatch San Diego, said she has little hope there will be a positive outcome for her side next month. “Of course it’s very disappointing, because to the general public it is obvious that the Planning Commission abused its discretion by denying the ruling made by the elected officials,” she said. Pro-access advocate Justin Schlaefli, a diver who edits a newsletter for a spearfishing club, said he was thrilled with Foster’s decision. “We feel the rope is a legitimate impediment to access at the beach,” Schlaefli said. During Friday’s hearing, Foster peppered pro-seal attorney Bryan Pease with questions. Pease tried to show that the Planning Commission went against the city’s intent by denying the permit, but to no avail. “If that was the case, I would expect the council to be part of this litigation,” Foster said. “And they’re not.” Pease went on to argue that people fighting to remove the rope frequently ignore it, so their contention that it’s an obstruction to beachgoers is a red herring. “They want thousands of people on the beach so the seals will disperse,” he said. Councilwoman Sherri Lightner, who represents La Jolla, said she supports the judge’s ruling and is in favor of the rope being removed when the seals are not nursing. “During the summertime, typically the seals spend a lot more time in the water,” Lightner said. “It’s important to allow people access to the pool at that time.” Children’s Pool was set aside in 1931 as a place for people to practice swimming in the ocean. The cove is popular with seals and their pups because it’s protected from big waves and sits close to some rich feeding areas. It is also a tourist attraction. It is legal for people to cross the guide rope that the city lays out during pupping season, but it is against federal law to harass the seals. What exactly constitutes harassment, and at what proximity beachgoers should get to the seals, continues to be in dispute. During the first three months of 2011, there were more than double the amount of calls to police at the cove compared with the year-earlier period, as beach-use advocates held regular gatherings on the sand steps away from the nursing seals. During the past five years, the dispute has been fought at City Hall, the Legislature and in both federal and state courtrooms. It will continue next month. nathan.max@uniontrib.com • (619) 718-5252 • Twitter: @natemax May 15, 2011 This was interesting because the flustered attorneys said they "had pieces of it" but not the complete municipal code. They didn't even offer the "pieces" they said they have. This makes me wonder if any such code even exists. Could the Planning Commission have acted irresponsibly by making their decision to over rule the City Council's resolution without any legal guidelines???!! The City attorney also tried to argue against the judge's decision to keep the rope up until June 3rd but Bryan (APRL) countered this by telling her that NOAA has stated that pupping season doesn't end until May 30th. She accepted this and said this was part of her reason for the TRO. Seal supporters (about 12-13) filled most of the small courtroom while the anti-seal side showed up with only 3. In anticipation of the rope coming down, the anti-seal groups were planning a "Beach Clean-up Day" for Sunday, May 15th. We talked about this afterwards and some people said they were going to call NOAA / NMFS to alert them. APRL/SealWatch, Friends of the La Jolla Seals, Sea Shepherd, Pacific Marine Mammal Center (PMMC) Volunteers, Orange County People for Animals (OCPA) and other pro-seal activists were all in attendance and it was great to see this and it couldn't have gone unnoticed by the judge and other observers. Even though some good things happened during this hearing the final outcome is still uncertain. Come to the hearing if you can on June 3rd. It's in Judge Lisa Foster's courtroom, Dept. 60, 333 W. Broadway downtown. THANK YOU Bryan for all your hard work on this and much more!!! December 10, 2010 The permit for the City Council proposal to close the beach on an ongoing basis for the seal pupping season December 15 – May 15 each year has been submitted and is being reviewed by various agencies. Approval will likely be a lengthy process of one to two years. Parks and Recreation installed new signs at the entrance to the beach promoting shared use of the Children's Pool and asking the public to stay back from the seals. Summer 2010 Seal harassment during the summer has occurred on a daily basis as beach users prevent the seals from hauling out when they need to rest. On June 11 the mayor denied City Council’s request for a temporary rope line to give a safe distance between people and seals. The Mayor failed to acknowledge the immediate need for the rope even though arguments were put forward that if an incident involving a child being bitten by a frightened seal occurred, or if a seal were harmed by a careless action, the liability would be on the city. May 17, 2010 Council members approved the following plan adopted by the Natural Resources and Culture Committee on April 5, 2010:
January 1, 2010 November 13, 2009 September 22, 2009 July 20, 2009 July 10, 2009 April 17, 2009 The Children’s Pool beach, also known as Casa beach, is a La Jolla and San Diego landmark. Formerly an open beach with dangerous rip currents, a breakwater wall was built with funding from Ellen Browning Scripps, a La Jolla resident and philanthropist. Her intention was to provide a safe place for children to bathe, and when the construction of the wall was complete the area was dedicated in 1931 as the Children’s Pool for the benefit of the local community. The breakwater wall was built upon a large rock shelf known since 1887 as Seal Rock and Seal Rock Point. First hand accounts by native La Jollans indicate the presence of harbor seals in the area before and after construction of the wall. For years, in virtually every discussion about the seal controversy, reference has been made to a “Children’s Pool.” This mischaracterization has been used by anti-seal forces to create the impression that San Diego benefactor Ellen Browning Scripps wanted Casa Beach devoted exclusively to the use of children. The fact is that Scripps did not give the city any property in or on which to create a “children’s pool.” On the contrary, it was the State of California, not Scripps that conveyed property to the City of San Diego— but not for the sole purpose of creating a pool in which children could swim. Chapter 937 of the Laws of 1931 is entitled: “An act granting certain tide and submerged lands of the State of California to the city of San Diego, San Diego county, in said state, upon certain trusts and conditions.” Section 1 (a) of the statute states in full: “That said lands shall be devoted exclusively to [1] public park, [2] bathing pool for children, [3] parkway, [4] highway, [5] playground and [6] recreational purposes, and [7] to such other uses as may be incident to, or convenient for the full enjoyment of, such purposes.” There are the six specifically enumerated uses for Casa Beach, at least three of which are extremely broad: [3] parkway, [4] highway and [6] recreational purposes. Certainly, the latter could mean almost anything, from amusement parks to athletic fields—or, surely, as has been the case for decades, seal-watching. It is number 7—“such other uses as may be incident to, or convenient for the full enjoyment of, such purposes”— that even more belies the anti-seal propaganda that has labeled Casa Beach as a “Children’s Pool.” The meaning and scope of the “such other” power is left entirely up to the City of San Diego under its home rule power, granted by the State Constitution. No matter what anti-seal partisans, or the uninformed, may call Casa Beach, it was never intended to be exclusively a “Children’s Pool.” In the past, it has not been exclusively a “Children’s Pool.” It is not now. And there is nothing in history, law or public policy that mandates that in the future it should be. It was only after the statutory conveyance of Casa Beach from the State to the City that Scripps donated the sea wall. In doing so, her wishes—even if clearly expressed, and no matter how well intentioned—could no more amend Chapter 937 of the laws of 1931 than can the constant and erroneous mischaracterization of Casa Beach as the "Children's Pool." Essentially, there are two legal claims that pro-seal legal experts have made.Frequently asked questions about the controversy 1. When did seals start coming to this beach? Weren't people here first?
2. Can you go down to the beach and swim?
3. Why is this beach important for the seals?
4. Why do people oppose having the seals here?
5. What can I do to help?
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