La Jolla Seals

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Enjoy is the Seal Preserve off of La Jolla Cove.

The preserve is protected..for now.

We could elaborate but these stories in the local newspaper do a fine job 'splaining the "drama" down at La Jolla Cove -Children's Pool. Whichever side you come down on, at least take the time to go see the seals. If you go, you'll see that the public loves to visit them and just sit quietly observing nature at play.

Visit and see what you think.

Judge: Seals can stay at Children's Pool
BY MIKE LEE, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2009 AT 3:12 P.M.

Visitors to the Children's Pool in La Jolla viewed the seals from the sea wall that created the cove. (Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune)

LA JOLLA -- The seals can stay.

So said Superior Court Judge Timothy Taylor on Friday, when he overturned two prior rulings by other judges that would have forced San Diego to disperse about 200 harbor seals that live at Children's Pool beach in La Jolla.

Taylor said the other decisions were correct when they were issued but that legislation signed in July makes it illogical now to force San Diego to get rid of the established colony.

Starting Jan. 1, the law will give San Diego leeway to let the seals remain at the cove. There's no indication the City Council intends to evict the animals, which are a popular tourist attraction.

Under an old agreement between San Diego and the state, the city was supposed to maintain Children's Pool as a swimming area for people. Bacteria levels at the site exceeded health limits after the seals congregated there.

Taylor's decision pleased animal-rights activists, who had filed a handful of lawsuits to protect the seals, and city leaders, who said it would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to scare away the creatures.

The seal colony could become "a wonderful, world-class wildlife viewing area," said Dorota Valli, a member of the Animal Protection and Rescue League in San Diego. She said the group is trying to help the city by raising money for visitors signs, murals and other features aimed at promoting the cove.

Paul Kennerson, a San Diego lawyer who has led efforts to remove the seals, was noncommital about filing more litigation.

"This may well be the end of the line," he said.

Appeals court dismisses lawsuit to protect Children's Pool seals
By Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

4:07 p.m. June 17, 2008

SAN DIEGO -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit from an animal-rights group trying to protect a colony of harbor seals at Children's Pool beach in La Jolla.

The Animal Protection and Rescue League in San Diego had argued that the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act supersedes a state court order to take down a rope barrier meant to protect the seals during their pupping season.

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the group does not have legal standing to bring such a lawsuit.

The decision marks another setback for the league and its pro-seal allies, who have been battling in court for years with people who want to restore Children's Pool as a swimming beach for humans.

In past rulings, state judges have mandated that San Diego find a way to curtail bacterial contamination at the cove, most likely by dispersing the seals and dredging the site. Fecal matter from seals has made bacteria counts at the beach exceed state standards since 1997.

City officials are scheduled to update the court about their efforts to clean up the cove during a hearing in September.

Attorney Paul Kennerson, who has led the push against the animal-rights league, called the Tuesday court decision "a major victory" for La Jolla residents and others who want people to have priority at the beach.

The Children's Pool controversy is linked to an agreement between the state and San Diego. When the city took over the cove, it agreed to maintain the area as a swimming beach. That task has been complicated because seals have established a permanent colony and rookery there.

At this point, the animal-rights league and its supporters can appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The group said it won't do so because its chances of success on that front are slim.

The league also can sue the National Marine Fisheries Service and allege that the agency has not fulfilled its duties, which include safeguarding marine mammals such as the seals. The fisheries service has long encouraged San Diego to put up a rope barrier around the seals during pupping season.

On the legislative front, the league has been asking state lawmakers to sponsor a bill rescinding the Children's Pool agreement between California and San Diego. No legislator has taken up the task.

Article from the San Diego Union Tribune

BEACH BRAWLS Clashes have gotten physical as they've drawn a line in the sand over the Children's Pool seals

By John Wilkens October 1, 2006

Relatively speaking, it's been a quiet few months on the battlefield known as Children's Pool. No stun guns. No dragon kites. No 4 a.m. wrestling matches in the sand, complete with pepper spray.

For almost a decade now the two sides have been at it, those who want to turn the La Jolla beach into a seal preserve and those who don't. About the only thing they agree on is that the place is worth fighting for.

Most outsiders assume the fighting is figurative -- a war of words in letters to the editor, or at government hearings. An occasional press conference when they get really serious.

But the fighting is frequently literal. It's angry and confrontational. Almost every day brings an incident at the beach that leaves somebody on one side or the other muttering in right-eous indignation.

They call each other names. They heckle and boo and spit. They claim to be afraid of each other, afraid sometimes for their lives. But they always come back for more.

It's gotten so bad that city lifeguards went to court last year and won a three-year restraining order against a 60-year-old seal advocate they said was interfering with their work. They accused him of constantly berating them and anyone he thought was bothering the seals; he admitted only to "obnoxiousness" and is appealing the order.

And when the San Diego City Council met earlier this year to talk about the seals, council members felt compelled to steer the conversation into Rodney King territory: Can't you folks just get along?

A truce seems unlikely. Some of the seals hauling out on the beach now are pregnant, and the dawning of the pupping season always heightens tensions. Plus, an appellate court decision is pending on a judge's order requiring the city to dredge the beach and maintain it for human use.

While everybody braces for the next development, the guerrilla warfare continues.

On a recent Friday, midmorning, about 35 seals were sprawled lazily at the west end of the beach. The water was an inviting blue-green under foggy skies. Tourists walked leisurely along the sea wall and took pictures.

Near the lifeguard tower, Dorota Valli, a regular volunteer with the Animal Protection and Rescue League, set up a table of pro-seal merchandise: T-shirts, hats, refrigerator magnets. She had a video camera with her, just in case.

About 10 yards away, at the top of the stairs leading down to the beach, two men greeted each other. John Steel, a retired doctor, and Don Perry, an art broker, were carrying swim fins, masks and snorkels. The La Jolla residents swim together almost every day, sometimes twice a day, for exercise and to make a point.

They walked down the stairs, past signs urging people to stay back from the seals. They crossed a line raked in the sand by the seal protectors. As they moved toward the east end of the pool, several seals scattered into the sea.

Valli filmed them from above. "That's a violation of federal law," she said. "They have nothing better to do than scare the seals." She used a cell phone to call a government hotline set up for reports of marine-mammal harassment. Steel and Perry swam out to a reef. A couple of seals darted among them. After about 20 minutes, they came ashore and pronounced the water fine.

They weren't surprised that Valli had reported them. "They report us all the time," Perry said, "but nothing ever happens because we're not doing anything wrong."

Steel asked Valli if she had gotten video of the "spooked" seal tugging playfully on his swim fin. She ignored him.

Just another day at the beach.

David Wayne Pierce is a diver who prefers Children's Pool because, unlike other popular underwater spots in La Jolla, which are marine reserves, he can spear fish and take lobster there. "I'm a hunter," he said.

The seal advocates call him something else.

They remain incensed about an incident in January of this year, when Pierce brought a dragon kite to the beach and flew it over the heads of the seals. They said he did it on purpose, to frighten the seals; he said he was simply enjoying a new Christmas gift.

"It's a public beach," he said. What he remembers about the day is "someone coming up and threatening to kill me."

In February, a group of pro-seal volunteers sought a restraining order against Pierce. They alleged that he stalked and threatened them, blocked their signs and kicked away the line they rake in the sand every day.

Valli said Pierce and some other divers trapped her on the beach early one morning, paraded in front of her with diving spears and likened her to an infamous terrorist group, chanting "Seal Qaeda! Seal Qaeda!

James Hudnall, coordinator of the Save Our Seals Coalition, said Pierce and another man followed him home one day and made ominous remarks. Hudnall sent an e-mail to police after the incident, "so you will have a couple of suspects to consider if something happens to me."

Pierce denied the allegations and said he is the one being harassed. He said the seal backers regularly get tourists to heckle him as he comes up to the street from the pool. One time, he added, when another diver had trouble breathing and had to be rescued by lifeguards, people cheered and laughed and flashed with their fingers the "L" sign for loser.

He said they put his face on a "wanted" poster that is displayed at the beach, and have included him in a video they sometimes show there, a compilation of anti-seal behavior that has also made its way to the Internet site YouTube.

After a two-day trial, the motion for a restraining order was denied. But that didn't end things. In late August, the Animal Protection and Rescue League sued Pierce again, this time for alleged theft.

According to the suit, Pierce went up to the pro-seal merchandise table at Children's Pool in January and grabbed a T-shirt. The items are offered in return for donations, and the suggested donation for a T-shirt is $17. Pierce put one penny in the jar. "A donation is a donation," he said. He did the same thing in February, according to the suit.

The city estimates 1 million people visit Children's Pool every year and the seals are the main attraction.

Then, in July, he allegedly took a log book belonging to the volunteers who monitor the rake line. It includes daily tallies of the seals on the beach, descriptions of harassment, and the names and phone numbers of the workers.

The suit asks for return of the T-shirts and the log book and punitive damages of not more than $10,000.

Pierce, 46, hasn't responded formally to the suit yet, but in an interview he denied any wrongdoing. He said he's being targeted for a reason.

"I'm their biggest threat, because when I go down to the beach, other people see me and go, 'Oh, it's OK to be there.' They don't want that."

Among those well-versed in the history of sealhenanigans, there is disagreement about which incident best illustrates the overflowing passions of the participants. Some are partial to the stun gun.

In the fall of 2004, tensions were running high. The City Council had voted in September to remove a rope that for five years had been strung across the beach, providing a barrier between the seals and humans. Almost immediately, some people began putting up umbrellas and holding barbecues on the beach. Seal fans yelled at them through bullhorns. Pererry said a guy walked up to him and asked, "So I can do anything I want on the beach now?" and then attempted to urinate on him. He was arrested.

Federal authorities were inundated with hotline calls reporting harassment of the seals, including allegations that people were stabbing the animals with knives and burning them with cigarettes. No evidence was found to support those claims.

One day in November, in the afternoon, things got out of control. The volunteers had placed a line of seaweed across the beach, a makeshift boundary between people and pinnipeds. Dennis Bianchi, a supporter of public access to the beach, started kicking the seaweed out of the way, according to court records.

A volunteer phoned Hudnall, who lives nearby. He rushed to the beach and started putting the seaweed back in place, even lying down on it to keep the line intact.

Then Bryan Pease arrived.

A longtime animal-rights activist -- a backer of campaigns against fur coats and foie gras -- Pease got into it with Bianchi. The pair wound up on the ground. Pease pulled out a stun gun and zapped Bianchi.

Pease was arrested and eventually pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor count of assault with a stun gun. He was sentenced to 20 days of work service, attendance in a behavior-modification class, fined $500, and put on probation for three years.

He said in court papers that even though Bianchi started the altercation, he accepted the plea because the law requires someone using a stun gun to be fearful of death or serious bodily injury, and he wasn't sure a jury would think his tussle in the sand met that threshold.

At the time, Pease had just passed the state bar exam to become a lawyer and was awaiting a background check of his character. His arrest pushed final approval back more than a year. (He now helps run the Animal Protection and Rescue League and has handled the suits against Pierce.)

Five months ago, he attempted to have his probation terminated and the conviction erased. He said he's steered clear of trouble since his arrest, and noted that Bianchi has not. Bianchi was arrested in January for public drunkenness at Children's Pool.

The 28-year-old lawyer said it's unfair he's still being punished, simply because he "may have overreacted somewhat."

The City Attorney's Office opposed his request, noting that "the controversy surrounding the use of the Children's Pool continues to rage." A judge agreed with the city.

Hudnall is probably the most recognizable figure in all of this. He's quoted regularly in the media. He peppers local authorities with e-mails. He's at Children's Pool almost every day.

He grew up in La Jolla, was a submarine officer in the Navy, ran wildlife-watching cruises in Canada, made a movie about humpback whales in Hawaii, and then came home to live in a house he inherited from his father.

In 1999, he heard about dredging plans that would displace the seal colony, and decided to get involved. It's now pretty much a full-time job: formulating strategy, compiling photos and video, shaping public opinion.

In person, Hudnall, 65, is a kindly grandfather type, soft-spoken and articulate. Talk to him for long and he begins to spin tales of intrigue and conspiracy. He's thought long and hard about the seals.

Hudnall was involved in one of the more amazing episodes at Children's Pool, three summers ago -- amazing not so much for what happened, but for when: 4 in the morning.

According to a police report, Dennis Bianchi -- yes, him again -- was on the beach, in the dark, removing seal-protection signs and ropes. Hudnall crept up and took a flash photo, and soon they were thrashing in the sand.

Hudnall used pepper spray on Bianchi, and Bianchi used a hammer to smash Hudnall's camera, police said.

"Both parties in this criminal complaint and their advocates appear poised to utilize this case to grandstand their agenda," the officer wrote.

Reading the report, you can almost hear a sigh of exasperation lifting off the pages.

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La Jolla Children's Pool: A chronology June 1931: With a donation from Ellen Browning Scripps, a crescent-shaped concrete breakwater was built, forming La Jolla's Children's Pool, also known as Casa Beach.

September 1997: For unknown reasons, seals began gathering there during the early 1990s. Their numbers grew to the point that health officials denied human access and posted contamination-warning signs.

March 1999: The San Diego City Council rejected a proposal to dredge the beach to push the seals out and ordered a rope-type barrier along the cove's western section to prevent people from coming close.

March 2003: After health officials changed signs from "beach-closed" to less strict warnings of contamination, 25 La Jolla Cove Swim Club members approached the beach to show that people and seals could share the space. Of nine swimmers given federal citations, one -- Lilo Maria Creighton -- pleaded not guilty and the rest negotiated for reduced fines. The citation against Valerie O'Sullivan, who filed suit against the city, was dismissed.

September 2004: The City Council ordered immediate removal of the barrier, creating a joint-use policy, escalating tensions between pro-access and pro-seal camps.

January 2005: Using a rake to draw a line in the sand, volunteers held signs urging people to watch the seals from a distance. These actions took place through the 2006 pupping season as well.

April 2005: Ruling on the 2003 swimming incident, Administrative Law Judge Parlen McKenna upheld the penalty to Creighton, but criticized the city for failing to resolve the dispute. Federal officials installed surveillance cameras to monitor skirmishes between pro-access and pro-seal activists.

August 2005: In the lawsuit filed by O'Sullivan, Superior Court Judge William C. Pate ruled in her favor, ordering the city to reduce contamination by narrowing the beach. He said the city is required to use the beach as a public park and bathing pool for children, according to the trust that transferred the land to the city. In April, Pate put his order on hold while the city appeals.

April 2006: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration requested that the city restrict access to Children's Pool to protect the seals during pupping season. The City Council agreed to cordon off the western section of the beach every Jan. 1 to May 1.

--BETH WOOD SOURCE: UNION-TRIBUNE ARCHIVES