Residents getting sick of gatecrashing sea lions

In most Californian coastal resorts, residents would kill for a regular glimpse of sea lions frolicking in the surf and barking with joy. In San Francisco and Monterey, they are tourist attractions.

But in the conservative yachting town of Newport Beach, south of Los Angeles, the residents want to kill the sea lions.

All summer, the sea lions have clustered around the yachting harbour, flopping on boats to sunbathe, vomiting and defecating wherever they please and barking so much some residents say they haven't had a decent night's sleep for months.

A month ago, 18 sea lions piled on to a vintage yacht, built in 1910, sinking it.

The boat-owners have petitioned the Harbour Commission, and the Harbour Commission has petitioned the City Council, but to no avail; the animals have been under special Government protection since they came close to extinction 30 years ago, and no one is allowed to touch them.

So a state of siege has been established. Many yacht-owners have tried to block the sundecks of their boats with chairs and kayaks. Others have temporarily moved their boats to other harbours. A few of the more enterprising residents have attacked the beasts with rubber bullets or firecrackers, blasted high-pitched sounds from underwater speakers, built a fake killer whale - an underwater scarecrow if you will - or employed a harbour hand to go around the boats and bang them with a stick.

The problem is that these ploys do not work. An estimated 400,000 sea lions frolic along the Pacific coast of the US, barely a generation after fears for their extinction led to the protective law.

- INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY