I went sailing around Newport Harbor recently and was surprised to see sea lions on boats so far inside the harbor. Usually, you’d only see them at the jetty entrance. Turns out, they’ve been finding the inner harbor a cool place to hang out recently. And a boat owner wasn’t so happy about it when he found his boat had sunk under the weight of the marine mammals.
The Orange County Register has the story of how a 24 foot boat went down recently. It’s not the same as the boat above — that’s just one of several I spotted. The city says there’s little it can do — boat owners are advised to “sea lion proof” their vessels by putting up netting or scaring the animals off with water hoses. Or wait until October, when they migrate out of the harbor.
Here’s another shot of them on one of the boat landings:
I also like this story about people upset over the sea lions barking:
“It’s a beautiful area. I hate to see these sea lions ruin a beautiful harbor,” Feltch said. We had the best spot in the nation until they came out here.”
I’m sure the thousands of sea lions that used to pepper Southern California’s beaches thought the same about the people who came and killed them off and polluted their waters.
Peter Buffa over at the Daily Pilot has fun looking further at the ways to deter sea lions and stay within the law. Apparently, music is recommended. And clapping. Maybe clapping to music would work even better?
