Bird nerds teach council members how to fight fireworks in Mission Bay

San Diego City Councilman Joe LaCava said the City Council’s Environmental Committee will investigate the suspected deaths of seabirds following the Fourth of July fireworks display in Mission Bay.

“We will be speaking with subject matter experts to better understand what was so different this year,” LaCava told the committee Thursday in response to numerous public commenters who weighed in on the issue even though it was not on the committee’s agenda.

Many speakers said that nesting seabirds in Mission Bay needed to be better protected from disturbance, with some adding that fireworks were also harmful to their health.

Vi Nguyen, a pediatrician and founder of San Diego Pediatricians for Clean Air, said she was sad to see the dead noble terns posted on social media by the San Diego Audubon Society, but it also means more work for her as a medical professional.

“Fireworks release PM 2.5 (a dust particle size that is harmful to human health) and aggravate asthma and COPD,” Nguyen said. “Pediatricians in the area support Audubon’s position in addressing the danger of fireworks to wildlife, but also to children.”

SeaWorld San Diego hosts a fireworks display every night during the summer and puts on a roughly 20-minute show every year on the Fourth of July, during which over 500 pounds of explosives are fired from Fiesta Island, according to a permit from the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board. This year, another organization called Discover Mission Bay put on another 18-minute show, also on Fiesta Island.

On July 12, the San Diego Audubon Society posted on Instagram photos of dead California terns, both adults and chicks and eggs, that had been washed away from their nesting site on West Ski Island over the Fourth of July weekend. Fireworks and increased boat traffic during the celebrations scared the birds from their nests, causing some of them to die, the organization claims.

The city of San Diego confirmed the existence of the West Ski Island nesting site, but noted that it is not an “officially recognized nesting area,” according to city spokesman Benny Cartwright.

“There is currently no official designation in any planning or regulatory document,” he said.

There are four officially recognized nesting sites for California little terns in Mission Bay: Mariners Point, Stoney Point, North Fiesta Island and FAA Island. The San Diego Audubon Society has also sent a letter to the California Coastal Commission demanding that SeaWorld’s fireworks permit be revoked. SeaWorld has stated that its fireworks displays are already monitored and regulated by several government agencies, including the commission.