A recent Superior Court judge’s decision siding with the City Attorney’s Office contention that the city has no legal duty to clean up after sea lions in La Jolla Cove despite the nauseating odor has some La Jollans crying foul.
“It’s sad that we (businesses and residents) have worked with the City of San Diego mayor’s office through Filner, Gloria and Faulconer on this issue for almost three years trying to find a mutual solution that works for the wildlife and the community,” said Sheila Fortune, executive director of the La Jolla Village Merchants Association, La Jolla’s Business Improvement District. “The sea lions are a great attraction, and we love to watch them. But I have also watched numerous people over the years walking on Prospect Street and Coast Boulevard holding their noses and literally having their hand over their mouths gagging.
“This is not an issue for only a couple of prominent businesses,” added Fortune. “This is an issue that is affecting the health of people who breathe these nauseating fumes while trying to enjoy the beauty of The Cove and the businesses of La Jolla.”
Fortune noted that “this was not an issue five years ago. But it’s amazing how rapidly it has increased and become out of balance.”
“It looks like the city believes if a seal comes on to a beach that seal owns that beach,” said longtime La Jollan Melinda Merryweather, warning, “The Shores will be next. The city has been told for years by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that it can remove the seals, but they refuse to do so. Bad decision.”
“While the city might not have legal responsibility, our elected representatives still have a duty to provide for the common good of residents, small businesses and the tourist industry,” said Joe LaCava, president of the La Jolla Community Planning Association, which makes land-use recommendations to the city. “I ask the city to work with us to implement a solution that is ecologically sound [and] cost- effective and has long-term effectiveness.”
In upholding a previously released tentative ruling, Judge Timothy Taylor said the problems created by the Cove sea lions was an issue that the mayor and City Council should properly address, not the courts.
“This belongs in the political realm,” Taylor told attorneys for Citizens for Odor Nuisance Abatement. “The courts don’t run society.”
Taylor granted the City’s motion for summary judgment, meaning the case will not go to trial.
The nuisance abatement group alleged that the City had allowed a public nuisance to persist in the form of sea lion excrement and cormorant droppings on the rocky outcroppings in and near La Jolla Cove. The situation has given rise to noxious odors that the group argues has led to nausea and illness among La Jolla residents and visitors.
The City Attorney’s Office countered that such odors were part of the risk-benefit of being situated near a marine environment and that the City could not be held liable for the actions of wild animals.
“Sea lions are proliferating throughout California, and that is neither the fault nor the responsibility of San Diego,” City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said. “The City can address the pooping habits of wild animals as a policy matter, but it cannot be compelled to do so by the courts.”
La Jollan Ken Hunrichs, a beach-access proponent, said he was “disappointed” by the judge’s decision on Cove sea lions while adding it wasn’t unexpected. “We knew that was going to happen,” Hunrichs said. “But this is one step in a process.”
Hunrichs felt that, in his decision, Taylor “wanted to just expedite the process to get it into the appeals court.”
Noting the appeal could take up to a year, Hunrichs said that, for those who believe beach access is guaranteed in the state’s constitution, what he’d like see is the City “invoke the section of the Marine Mammal Protection Act that allows them to abate a nuisance. It’s simple; the city should hire someone to do nonlethal harassment to get seals off the rocks and encourage them to go somewhere else, like Devil’s Slide around the corner where they’re isolated, or to inaccessible portions of Sunset Cliffs.”?CA Marengo, merchants group president, said at the group’s April meeting that it seemed to him that Taylor thought foul odors from The Cove “was not an issue that has affected all of us.” Marengo added “something needs to change” in terms of convincing the judge and other prominent San Diegans that “more than just a couple people are affected.” “We find it difficult,” Marengo added in an email, “to understand a judge who can make a decision that a City is not responsible for the health risk and waste that wildlife is making on our very heavily protected beaches and parks, all under the premise that it is natural. This natural event that is occurring is by all means manmade, and the City put in the manmade items (i.e., fences and railings and limited access to the resource). This caused the natural act of coexistence between sea lions, cormorants and people to change on how they interact on the natural bluffs and beaches. When they fully regulate the access and improvements, they have in our minds taken responsibility and therefore need to do something about it. “If they continue to disagree, then a simple solution would be to remove all the manmade improvements and not regulate these areas so that a true natural interaction can take place. “The existence of people on the beaches would allow the three entities to exist and be comfortable wherever they felt comfortable, which in turn would allow people to clean their own environment that they felt was a health risk and the cormorants occupy land that they felt comfortable with that typically would be outside of the reach of people. The sea lions are doing the same, as we have witnessed when the gates were open and they shifted direction of their resting places without getting harmed. “If the sea lions and cormorants have to be protected by fences and people yelling at others to stay away from the beaches they occupy, then I believe there is nothing natural about it, so I will just say let’s all get along and either work together as a city and a community for common interest or let us, the merchants, protect our livelihood and health of our employees and tourists that feed our economy and clean the bluffs ourselves if the City is not supposed to do it.”