Our Readers Write: Sea lions, vending

Letters to the editor:

Technique is key for dealing with people and sea lions

As a part-timer for 10 years here in La Jolla, I am all in favor of keeping visitors away from contact with the seals or sea lions during their pupping seasons.

However, I experienced a situation recently in which the sea lions were close to the wall at Scripps Park. I’m not going to say that someone won’t desire to reach down and pet one; however, there was an older female docent that was present yelling at visitors, threatening to call the police and taking photos of visitors peering over the side. She was so flustered and irritated that she came across looking like a wild, crazy person. Everyone was laughing and ignoring her to some extent.

I’m just not so sure this is the best technique for a docent in a situation that could have been turned into an educational moment in nature instead. Calmness on the docent’s part and sharing facts about the sea lions, while keeping the people back, would have been a more advantageous moment for her, our visitors and, above all, the sea lions!

Diane Merrill

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La Jolla’s coastline isn’t the place for runaway commerce

The La Jolla Cove underwater preserve is a rare gift of preservation in a world of development and destruction. The park and hardscape at the Children’s Pool are deserving of similar respect. To see it overrun with vendors on sidewalks, grass and in parking spaces is wrong on so many levels.

Ellen Browning Scripps gave a priceless gift to San Diego by protecting this land and maintaining it for the good of the community. Unregulated commerce in the face of one of the nation’s most beautiful and important pieces of coastline is, frankly, stupid. Before more irreparable damage is done, I’m asking the [California] Coastal Commission and law enforcement to take enforceable action.

Winifred Holbrooke

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What’s on YOUR mind?

Letters published in the La Jolla Light express views from readers about community matters. Submissions of related photos also are welcome. Letters reflect the writers’ opinions and not necessarily those of the newspaper staff or publisher. Letters are subject to editing. To share your thoughts in this public forum, email them with your first and last names and city or neighborhood of residence to robert.vardon@lajollalight.com. You also can submit a letter online at lajollalight.com/submit-a-letter-to-the-editor. The deadline is 10 a.m. Monday for publication in that week’s paper. Letters without the writer’s name cannot be published. Letters from the same person are limited to one in a 30-day period. ◆