AR-News: (US CA) Hearing held on marine mammal act

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Clarification is sought after La Jolla incident 
By Terry Rodgers
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER 
March 1, 2004 
Swimmers, kayakers and others who frequent the shoreline should be aware. If 
the beach where you plan to land is occupied by a snoozing seals, the marine 
mammals have priority and cannot be disturbed. 
At least, that's how the federal law is being enforced by the National Marine 
Fisheries Service. But that interpretation could be significantly altered by 
the outcome of a civil hearing held last week in San Diego. 
The judge's ruling, which is not expected sooner than this summer, will be 
important to coastal communities nationwide where conflicts between humans and 
protected seals and sea lions are increasing. 
"Every case that gets to court is crucial," said Rebecca Lent, deputy 
director of the fisheries service, which is under the National Oceanic and 
Atmospheric Administration. 
She said her agency is concerned that the Marine Mammal Protection Act 
remains too vague and would prefer language that is more precise. 
"We are trying to focus on those activities that truly have an impact on 
marine mammals," she said. 
After listening to attorneys for both sides argue for nearly four days over 
the meaning and intent of the 1972 protection act, Administrative Law Judge 
Parlen McKenna observed: "Maybe this case needs to go forward so some (legal) 
definitions can be made." 
The court case stems from an incident last March in which a group of swimmers 
caused a resident colony of harbor seals to stampede into the ocean from a 
pocket beach in La Jolla known as Children's Pool. The swim was intended to make 
a political statement that seals and humans should be allowed shared use of 
the public beach. Organizers insist it was not an act of civil disobedience. 
Nine of the approximately 25 swimmers – only those who came ashore and 
displaced the seals – were cited and issued $1,000 civil penalties for violating the 
Marine Mammal Protection Act. 
A majority of the other swimmers returned to their starting point a 
quarter-mile north, after one of the frightened seals at Children's Pool attacked an 
advancing swimmer.



full story:

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20040301-9999-news_1m1seals.html
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