Activists seek seal of approval in Calif.
Beach squatters spark controversy
SAN DIEGO - Summer Dunsmore, 19, glanced over her shoulder at the 50 or so harbor seals snoozing on a small horseshoe-shaped beach beside the Children’s Pool in suburban La Jolla.
“Look at them,’’ said the La Jolla High graduate who is now a student at San Diego Mesa College. “They’re such peaceful creatures.’’
Dunsmore has been organizing rallies this summer - at the beach, at the downtown courthouse, even at the governor’s San Diego office - in support of letting the seals remain on the beach, which was created when philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps paid to build a breakwater in 1931.
The pinnipeds may be peaceful, but not the lawyers, politicians, city employees, federal officials, and activists who are into the second decade of controversy over whether the seals should be allowed to stay or should be scared away so the beach can be cleaned up for children.
Dunsmore is a second-generation activist. She remembers tagging along with her mother at an early protest rally when City Hall, under pressure from La Jolla residents, was considering evicting the seals.
At the moment, the seals appear to have the upper hand. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill last month changing the wording of the 1931 deed granted to the city for the beach.
The deed has long been interpreted as requiring the city to maintain the beach for children, as the newspaper heiress wanted. As amended by SB 428, however, the deed allows the city to declare it a marine sanctuary.
The passion in the dispute stems largely from its location. This is La Jolla, the most elite address inside city limits. A short walk from the beach is Prospect Street, San Diego’s equivalent to Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.
Plus, the Children’s Pool beach, although barely 100 yards long in a county with 70 miles of coastline, is special.
There are larger and, arguably, nicer beaches in La Jolla, but many residents have fond memories of swimming at the Children’s Pool or taking their children there.
Once the seals arrived in the early 1990s, the tourists were not far behind. With up to 200 seals lounging at the beach, swimmers and picnickers have since moved elsewhere. At one point, the beach officially was closed to people because the fecal count had reached extremely high levels.
No one knows why the seals abandoned an offshore sanctuary a mile away. But soon the Children’s Pool beach became possibly the most visible rookery - where harbor seals give birth - in Southern California.
With more tourists came more annoyance for La Jolla residents who want the seals gone. “I think for some people, it’s a matter that they like animals more than they like their neighbors,’’ said Mike Forbes, real estate agent and chairman of the La Jolla parks and beaches committee.
Among some La Jollans there is also a sentiment that letting the seals remain is disrespectful to the memory of “Miss Scripps,’’ who devoted much of her fortune to the health and pleasure of children, including a public library, an aviary for the San Diego Zoo, and Scripps Memorial Hospital. The site of her former home, a short walk from the Children’s Pool, is now the Museum of Contemporary Art.
A letter-writer to the La Jolla Light suggested that if the city does not disperse the seals, it should repay Scripps’s heirs for the cost of the breakwater.
Former Councilman Scott Peters said no other issue during his eight years representing La Jolla was so fraught with emotion. “It’s become two sides, and nobody is willing to compromise,’’ said Peters, who tilted prochildren but hoped, in vain, to find a way for both species to coexist.
