As a Tea Party activist, one of my earliest assignments was trying to determine where we might be helpful in an ongoing battle between seal-loving eco-activist extremists versus the citizens who wanted to enjoy the La Jolla cove area and the businesses dependent on them doing so.
Over the years, my thoughts on the seals’ presence at the Children’s Pool has mirrored my growing anger at the “do-gooder”, anti-humanity, liberty-crushing environmental activists who have used a combination of emotionalism, poor science, and political gamesmanship to redesign regulations and control businesses to meet their distorted worldviews. An action item for the grassroots “Tea Party” movement is to address the disparity in activism, so that the needs of all citizens can be addressed in a manner that is friendly to businesses, the people that depend upon these businesses for their livelihoods, and the environment.
Nothing has changed.
However, the stench has become so bad that several of the area businesses have filed a lawsuit...including George’s-at-the-Cove, where my husband proposed to me in October 1998.
A lawsuit has been filed demanding the city eradicate the “foul, noxious and sickening odors” left by birds and sea lions defecating on the rocks next to La Jolla Cove.The stink offends the patrons of some of La Jolla’s best known restaurants overlooking the cove and visitors to the famed La Valencia Hotel, according to the lawsuit filed by a group calling itself Citizens for Odor Nuisance Abatement.The group’s president is George Hauer, owner of George’s At The Cove, one of the city’s premiere dining spots.The smell is costing restaurants and hoteliers money, the lawsuit alleges.Champion boxer Floyd Mayweather and his entourage booked two villas and six rooms at the La Valencia Hotel but then left after 15 minutes because of the smell, the lawsuit alleges:”That is over $5,000 in one day’s rooms revenue that walked in and out of the La Valencia Hotel as a result of the noxious smell emanating from the cliffs.”
Part of the problem is that so many bureaucratic entities are involved (e.g. California Coastal Commission, California Department of Fish and Wildlife) that people have nowhere to go for recourse. And, despite the fact former mayor Bob Filner stank himself, he actually did try to tackle the problem by hiring a Northern California environmental cleanup firm for $50,000 to cleanse the rocks.
The editorial board of the San Diego Union Tribune points a finger directly at the environmental extremism in their opinion on this suit:
That is the proper context with which to see the maddening saga of the stench emanating from the rocky areas and cliffs at La Jolla Cove. It has been 13 months since a New York Times story laid bare for the nation not just our local shame but the collapse of common sense in the Golden State — the idiocy of environmental rules so rigid and so far-reaching that removal of animal feces is somehow classified as a threat to nature….But that’s also true of state and federal regulators who pronounce themselves unable to act with any sort of urgency. If state and federal law governing nature is so all-powerful that it prevents the removal of animal waste from areas densely populated by humans, then, as a Charles Dickens’ character said, the law is an ass.
The law may be an ass, but it is a potentially deadly one. As I noted in my original analysis, seals and sea lions are preyed upon by sharks. Last month, there was a report that the number of shark sightings in the area have increased substantially:
A rash of great white shark sightings in San Diego waters has surfers, swimmers, and a fisherman wondering what’s going on.First, a handful of life guards spotted a large triangular fin in North County. Then a fisherman shot video of an 18 foot great white in La Jolla.
As Glenn Reynolds would say, all is proceeding as I have foreseen.
(Photo from ABC News 10 report.)
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