La Jolla\u2019s seals continue to whirl around the Children\u2019s Pool drain as attorneys dragged feds into the controversy, fighting over whether to frighten away the marine mammals before moving forward with the city\u2019s dredging process. “[Attorney Brian] Pease filed another lawsuit in federal court,” said Paul Kennerson, attorney for Valerie O\u2019Sullivan, who first sued the city for allowing La Jolla\u2019s harbor seals to interfere with citizens swimming and diving. “He sued the government to require them to get a permit to get rid of the seals. The city said they agreed with Pease but the government made a motion to dismiss the case.” Pease, attorney for the Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) SealWatch, sued the federal government\u2019s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for failing to enforce the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The federal MMPA preempts enforcement of state law, Pease said. La Jolla\u2019s harbor seal colony is protected under the federal MMPA. A previous ruling said the city of San Diego must dredge the sand at La Jolla\u2019s Children\u2019s Pool beach \u2013 a natural harbor seal rookery \u2013 until the area is restored to its 1941 condition. But Kennerson said the city couldn\u2019t dredge until the harbor seal colony is removed. “We said they need a permit to do that,” Pease said. “The city has a $43 million budget shortfall now and they would have to hire a full-time staff person to disperse the seals.” San Diego Superior Court Judge Yuri Hofmann had previously ruled on submission that he would order the city to remove the seal colony. Pease said he went to federal court, where Judge William Q. Hayes signed a temporary restraining order Oct. 22, protecting the seals until Nov. 25. Hayes then extended the temporary restraining order until Feb. 13 \u2013 the new court date for Pease and NOAA and the city, Pease said. “Ideally, we would agree that the city would apply for a permit and no seals would be dispersed until the city gets that permit,” Pease said. But the harbor seals\u2019 pupping season lasts through May 30, according to Pease. “I think even NOAA would have a serious problem with [removing seals during pupping season],” Pease said. Kennerson said he plans to file a new suit in federal court. “The federal government wants this dismissed and so do I,” he said. The next state hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8. A settlement conference is scheduled for Jan. 5, and the next federal hearing is scheduled for Feb. 13.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
La Jolla\u2019s seals continue to whirl around the Children\u2019s Pool drain as attorneys dragged feds into the controversy, fighting over whether to frighten away the marine mammals before moving forward with the city\u2019s dredging process. “[Attorney Brian] Pease filed another lawsuit in federal court,” said Paul Kennerson, attorney for Valerie O\u2019Sullivan, who first sued the […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"Attorney sues NOAA, saves seals for now","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551,11593],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-296092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news","category-no-images"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296092\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}