Quote:
Originally Posted by FISHIONADO
I raised my kids in La Jolla and we never went to the children's pool even when it was open. La Jolla Shores and Scripps were always so much better. If you ask the children to vote they would choose to let the seals stay. Every day there are hundreds of people and lots of kids who enjoy watching the seals. Not many people really used the children's pool when it was open.
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Good to hear something like that from a local.
Fact is, seals never used to be around there. I respect your comments, though I tend to disagree simply for the fact that, as the adage goes, give someone an inch and they'll take a mile.
When I used to frequent CP, no seals and plenty of kids. Plus the added beauty of the diversity since you had small reefs mixed with sand bottom created an opportunity to view anything from small sharks, bugs, to calicos.
I don't know how old your kids were, I used to take chicas there who never knew the beauty below them, and most of these girls were lifeguards!
Now, as a parent of a future waterman, I always hoped to be able to take him snorkeling early at a place that would allow him to view the sea with no aggression, fish that were not skittish, a place with diversity, different structure, and not a flat sandy bottom.
I guess the thing that irritates me more than anything is not only the thought that my son will never be able to see CP as I saw it before, the sea life, alive, fish everywhere, but that a single person had the vision to make it a safe haven for children, spent her money and time to create it, only to have a group come along with no regard for the beauties and bounties of our oceans, who just want to sit out of the way, with binos and cameras, and marvel at these creatures on the sand, not knowing the true destruction they've created in the water, the polluted waters, and the loss of fish and habitat, that will take years to recover.
It's funny, and very sad, that these same people, had they spent the time to enjoy the undersea life, the feeling of cold ocean water in the morning, the soothing feeling of the water on a hot day, replenishing, the euphoric feeling of swimming with the denizens of the ocean and to marvel at their beauty, again, had they spent the time to enjoy this side of nature, I don't think they would want the seals there and would realize the destruction they are causing.
To them, the beauty is standing on the ledges, the looking spots, and watching the seals on the sand, frolicking in the ocean. They aren't in the water, or on the water, to see where the real beauty lies. Nor are they able to see the destruction caused over a few years' time....