Weird News – It Happens

$688,000 to scare away seals from the ocean?   Why not pay a million and have stupidity removed from whoever came up with this stupid idea.  We are guests on the seas, not rulers!  I say long live the seals!

(AP Photo/Lenny Ignelzi)

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The city of San Diego said Tuesday it will go to court to ask a state judge to lift an order requiring the immediate removal of a colony of federally protected harbor seals from a La Jolla cove.

The announcement by City Attorney Jan Goldsmith was the latest development in an emotional and yearslong battle over who should have exclusive use of the protected cove – children or seals – in the posh seaside neighborhood of La Jolla.

On Monday, a San Diego Superior Court judge ordered the city to begin chasing away the creatures from the cove, called the Children’s Pool, by Thursday or face heavy fines in order to comply with a 2005 ruling in a lawsuit brought by a disgruntled swimmer.

The city said it would blast recordings of barking dogs to scare away the pesky pinnipeds at the cost of $688,000 a year. San Diego cannot use force because the seals are a federally protected marine species.

But just hours later, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that added a marine mammal park to the list of permissible uses for the Children’s Pool – giving the city a legal tool that could allow the seals to stay put.

Goldsmith said the city will go to court on the matter Thursday.

“It’s like saying the seals in the zoo are a nuisance,” he said.

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