San Diego Councilmember Joe LaCava said the city Council Environment Committee would look into the alleged deaths of seabirds following Fourth of July fireworks in Mission Bay.
“We’ll talk with subject matter experts to better understand what was so different about this year,” LaCava said before the committee on Thursday in response to multiple public commenters who showed up to speak on the issue despite it not being on the committee’s agenda.
Many speakers said nesting seabirds need more protection from disturbances in Mission Bay, some adding that fireworks were also bad for human health.
Vi Nguyen, a pediatrician and founder of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air, said she was sad to see the dead elegant terns posted by San Diego Audubon Society on social media. But they create more work for her as a medical professional as well.
“Fireworks release PM 2.5 (a dust particle size that’s harmful to human health) and exacerbates asthma and COPD,” Nguyen said. “Pediatricians in the area support the Audubon’s position to address the danger of fireworks to wildlife but also children.”
SeaWorld San Diego launches a nightly fireworks display in the summertime and holds an annual Fourth of July show which lasts about 20 minutes, launching over 500 pounds of explosives from Fiesta Island, according to its permit with the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. This year another organization called Discover Mission Bay held an additional 18-minute-long display also on Fiesta Island.
On July 12, the San Diego Audubon Society posted to its Instagram pictures of dead California elegant terns, both adults, chicks and eggs, that had washed off their West Ski Island nesting ground following the Fourth of July weekend. Fireworks and increased boating activity during the festivities scared the birds from their nests, causing some of them to die, the organization alleges.
The city of San Diego acknowledged the West Ski Island nesting ground exists but noted it’s not “an officially recognized nesting area,” according to Benny Cartwright, a city spokesperson.
“It does not currently have an official designation in any planning or regulatory documents,” he said.
There are four officially recognized bird nesting areas in Mission Bay for California Least Terns specifically: Mariners Point, Stoney Point, North Fiesta Island and FAA Island. San Diego Audubon Society also sent a letter to the California Coastal Commission asking to revoke SeaWorld’s fireworks permit. SeaWorld has said its displays are already monitored and regulated by multiple government agencies including the commission.
People who disrespect nature call people who respect nature nerds.
Well it’s clear who is disrespectful.
As a proud bird nerd, I don’t take offense at all with the label. I take great offense at Sea World San Diego claiming to care for wildlife but taking intentional actions that knowingly harm wildlife. I take offense with the City of San Diego spokesperson basically shrugging off responsibility because the terns stupidly decided not to nest in a designated nesting site (can’t they read?!).
Nests being washed out by wake sounds more like a natural selection issue (not building a nest in a safe enough place) than a fireworks issue. There could be a speeding issue by watercraft, but there’s organizations to address that. I’m sorry about the bird deaths, but deaths due to overcrowding on an island is not a human problem.
The deaths were absolutely not caused by overcrowding on an island, but were human caused. Some think that 3 billion birds lost in the U.S. since the 1970’s is not a human problem; that the population crash of insects worldwide is not a human problem; that the climate crisis, as much as some will put their heads in the sand, is not a human problem. Experts in each field of science have been disagreeing with that collective lack of responisibility for many years.