Community Corner

Controversy Over La Jolla Harbor Seals Returns

A rope barrier will go up in Children's Pool to protect seals during pupping season.

Seal barrier to return

A rope barrier around 130 of the 133 feet of access to the Children’s Pool beach swimming area in La Jolla is scheduled to be reinstalled today, the beginning of the harbor seal pupping season.

Just how long the barrier remains up is a decision currently in the hands of the California Coastal Commission, said Bryan Pease, a lawyer representing animal rights groups that want the barrier to be made permanent. Current city policy is to keep the rope up until pupping season ends on May 15.

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The area near La Jolla Cove was gifted to the city of San Diego in 1931 as a safe beach swimming area for kids but was taken over by seals, touching off years of strife between animal rights activists and beach access activists. One side wants the rope permanently in place and the other doesn’t want a barrier at all.

Slight improvement

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San Diego Coastkeeper says the quality of water in San Diego’s rivers and creeks improved slightly this year over 2010 and remained in fair condition overall.

The assessment emerged Wednesday when the environmental organization released data from monthly testing of the Sweetwater, Los Penasquitos, Otay, San Luis Rey, San Diego, Pueblos and Carlsbad watersheds.

Travis Pritchard, the organization’s water-quality-monitoring program manager, said the region’s “freshwater inland water” was checked for 14 items examined by state water authorities, including bacteria that indicates fecal matter, ammonia, phosphorous, nitrates and metals such as copper and lead.

Pritchard said he took the number of times a watershed exceeded state standards for one of those items, and by how much, and combined them through a mathematical formula to achieve a final score.

The biggest improvement was in the Sweetwater River, which is monitored in two places, according to Coastkeeper.

How low will it go?

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in San Diego County fell today for the 36th consecutive day, dropping six-tenths of a cent to $3.568, its lowest amount since Feb. 20.

The average price is 5.1 cents less than one week ago and 25.7 cents lower than a month ago, but 29.7 cents more than a year ago, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service.

The average price has fallen 28.9 cents over the past 36 days, including nine-tenths of a cent on Wednesday.

The decreasing prices are the result of lower demand, which is typical for the fall, according to Jeffrey Spring of the Automobile Club of Southern California.

-City News Service


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