VOICE FROM SAN DIEGO: Bird conservationists launch new war against fireworks in San Diego ~ MAVEN’S NOTEBOOK

The San Diego Audubon Society is calling for an end to fireworks at SeaWorld when dead eggs, chicks and adult jeweled terns wash ashore after several days of fireworks.

By Mackenzie Elmer, Voice of San Diego

Environmentalists’ recent campaign to eradicate pyrotechnics in San Diego has a new battleground: Mission Bay.

Just days after San Diego SeaWorld and Discover Mission Bay detonated well over 500 pounds of explosives over the Fourth of July weekend, waterlogged carcasses of dead unborn, chicks and adult noble terns washed ashore at the Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve. Avian biologists discovered the carcasses and reported the incident to the San Diego Audubon Society, which then asked the California Coastal Commission to revoke SeaWorld San Diego’s fireworks permit for most of the breeding season.

“It appears that the adult terns and chicks have been scared off the island,” said Andrew Meyer, conservation director for the San Diego Audubon Society. “And when chicks get scared because they are not good flyers, they run off in groups and probably dropped a lot of eggs into the water.”

The San Diego Audubon Society sent a letter to the California Coastal Commission last week describing the events of the Fourth of July weekend. The letter also includes photos of the birds that were reportedly circling over the island during the fireworks display, as well as photos of the carcasses that were later discovered.

“There are so many reasons not to have fireworks. They’re being replaced by drone shows anyway, which cause poorer water quality, PTSD and impacts on wildlife,” Meyer said.

This is what happened: According to NBC 7 San Diego, Discover Mission Bay launched an 18-minute fireworks display on Fiesta Island on July 3. And the next day, on July 4, there was a 20-minute show at SeaWorld San Diego.

In the middle of the crossfire: the unofficial nesting site of over 7,600 seabirds on a crescent-shaped headland called West Ski Island. Unlike other protected nesting sites in Mission Bay, the island is not protected by riprap or protective piles of rocks and boulders to prevent flightless chicks from wandering into the water. Nor are there any buoys to prevent watercraft from getting too close, Meyer says.

“We are concerned about the high frequency of the more than 150 fireworks displays in spring and summer, which coincide with the seabird breeding season, and the proximity of the shows to seabird breeding colonies,” the letter said.

The Audubon Society included photographs in its letter of “panic flights of huge flocks of 5,000 to 7,000 terns flying around during and after the show, especially on the Fourth of July.”

Panic flights, says Meyer, occur when a colony flies together out of fear of predators or intruders – when boats come too close, terns rise and spin in a circular motion above the island.

On July 6, bird biologists conducting routine drop-net fishing operations discovered bird carcasses along the shores of Mission Bay’s last remaining natural wetland habitat.

Tracy Spahr, a spokeswoman for SeaWorld San Diego, said the fireworks are monitored and regulated by several government agencies, including the Coastal Commission.

“As one of the largest animal rescue organizations in the world, SeaWorld’s mission is to help, protect and care for animals,” Spahr wrote.

A spokesperson for Discover Mission Bay said their July 3 show is an annual tradition that has been going on for over 50 years.

“Discover Mission Bay has obtained the necessary permits for the July 3 fireworks display and has contracted with a professional fireworks vendor and appropriate security personnel to ensure a safe holiday celebration in accordance with City procedures and requirements,” Stephanie Saathoff wrote on behalf of the Mission Bay Lessees Association at Discover Mission Bay.

Tensions between fireworks producers and environmentalists in San Diego go back a long way. The Coast Law Group and Coast Environmental Rights Foundation filed lawsuits to stop fireworks in La Jolla more than 15 years ago, leading to increased monitoring of fireworks’ impacts on water quality. The Animal Protection and Rescue League sued a group behind fireworks in La Jolla to stop fireworks in La Jolla Cove near a sea lion colony, according to the Union-Tribune.

In La Jolla, home to a federally protected marine sanctuary, the fireworks were eventually replaced with a drone show. The La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club has hosted drone shows for the past two years, arguing that the displays have “minimal impact on our environment.”

The San Diego Audubon Society said it first noticed groups of seabirds on West Ski Island in 2020, when the beaches were largely closed to people. None of the species nesting there are endangered, but the birds that washed ashore dead this month were the endangered noble terns, a more shy species than others, Meyer said.

In 2021, about 2,000 jeweled terns abandoned their nesting island at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve in Huntington Beach after a drone entered a restricted area and crashed, scaring away the would-be parents, according to the Orange County Register.

Meyer said more unrest is expected before the end of the breeding season on Sept. 15. A kind of Formula One for powerboats returns to Mission Bay with the World Series of Powerboat Racing Sept. 13-15. Audubon wants race officials to postpone the race again, at least until the end of the breeding season.

San Diego Bayfair, the organizer of the powerboat competition, did not respond to a request for comment by the time this article was published.

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