| Casa Beach, also known as the Children's Pool, is a tiny beach in La Jolla, California that is famous for its colony of harbor seals that rest and give birth there.
Unfortunately, the seals' home is now in jeopardy because swimmer sued the City of San Diego (of which La Jolla is a part) and won a ruling in 2005 from a state court judge ordering the city to dredge the sand on which the seals rest to return it to its 1931 condition as a "bathing pool."
The city appealed the ruling all the way up to the California Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case. Now under the direction of Superior Court Judge Yuri Hoffman, the city is being forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to carry out the dredging project.
In 2007, APRL filed suit in federal court to enforce the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. The district court dismissed the case, but then APRL appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which granted an emergency motion allowing the rope barrier to remain for the 2008 pupping season. APRL attorney Bryan Pease also won a motion in October 2008 to stop the seals from being dispersed until further ruling by the court.
APRL has also been maintaining a day and night presence at Casa Beach to protect the seals from harassment.
The State Legislature could easily amend the 1931 law that the state court based its ruling on and declare that the city does not have to dredge the beach or remove the seals, which would save the city millions of dollars and protect this treasured habitat. However, no state legislator has been courageous enough to get involved in this issue.
In May 2007, APRL sponsored a Zogby opinion poll to see where San Diegans stand on protecting the seals at Children's Pool Beach. The results: over 80% of San Diegans and 91% of La Jollans want increased protection for the seals.
After asking several questions about whether people "agree" with protecting the seals, the final question asked if people "disagree" with dredging. This would eliminate any positive response bias (people who tend to "agree" to everything, or are used to answering each question "agree"). A strong three fourths majority still "disagreed" with dredging.
View the complete poll results here. The breakdown by council district and other demographics is here. The dredging question is here, with district breakdowns and demographics here. La Jolla Friends of the Seals also contributed to the cost of the poll.
Click here to view news coverage of the poll, which included local CBS, ABC, KUSI and FOX. Click here to view the San Diego Union Tribune article.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Please write to your state assemblymember and senator and urge them to sponsor legislation to amend the Tidelands Grant of 1931 to not require the City of San Diego to spend millions of dollars dredging the beach and removing the seals. The state court ruling that Casa Beach must be maintained as an artificial "bathing pool" was based on an extreme interpretation of this 1931 state law, which the State Legislature can easily amend to clarify.
To find out who your state legislators are, click here.
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