News and Bits From Around OB, the Peninsula and the Beaches

Clapper Rails Released Into the Wild in Mission Bay

CBS 8 – On Tuesday, the 400th light-footed clapper rail was released into the wild right here in San Diego.  Team Clapper Rail released seven captive-bred birds at the Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve in Mission Bay. This is the 12th year the team has hosted a release of the endangered birds. Organizers say it is so important to take care of our environment to preserve the lives it holds.

“It makes me feel wonderful. You know, sometimes it’s a little frustrating, it goes so slowly, but it’s just the way these ecosystems are. When you put them into such disrepair, you don’t get reparation overnight,” Dick Zembal of the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy said. The clapper rail numbers started declining as their natural habitat — salt marshes — started disappearing.

Four Unit Apartment in Ocean Beach on Banning Street Sold for Over $1 Million

The Daily Transcript  (subscription) /  November 19, 2013

 The fourplex residential property in Ocean Beach at 4332 Banning St., San Diego 92107, has been sold for $1.05 million. The buyer was Michael Joseph Kilbride, P.O. Box 3341, Newport Beach 92659.  The acquisition was financed with a loan of $630,000 from Pinnacle Capital Mortgage Corp.

The sellers of the property were Christopher A. Craft (50 percent) and Michael Ramsay (50 percent). The two-story building is approximately 3,000 square feet, built in 1964 on a 4,000-square-foot lot.

The apartment consists of two-bedroom/one-bath units, all with private patios or decks/balconies. The property includes eight off-street parking spaces and on-site laundry facilities.  The property was sold in January 2003 for $690,000, with financing of $552,000 from Washington Mutual Bank. The property is on the high inland side of Ocean Beach, 10 blocks from the ocean and backed up to the Point Loma Native Plant Garden.  The garden is part of the City of San Diego’s Collier Park West.

Screen capture student video aired on 10News report

Point Loma Students Staged Protest Over Home Coming Game Lights Being Switched Off by School

Back in October, there was a protest by students at Point Loma High School and 40 were reportedly arrested.  It was all over the school’s decision to move this year’s Home Coming Game on Nov. 8th to daytime hours and switch off the stadium lights for a night game.  The students staged a walkout, chanting, “We want lights! We want lights!”

Here is the report from  10News

The continuing battle over stadium lights at Point Loma High School forced the school to move its homecoming football game from night to day on Friday.

Robert Pejovich, who set up the lights at Point Loma High night games for the last seven years, said, “My initial response was just, ‘Oh, no,’ you know? A real sense of disappointment.”  It was the first time in eight years the game was played in sunlight rather than under Friday night lights.  “We always kept it as a real nice event. It never got out of control, and I’m really disappointed,” Pejovich added.

Hundreds of students felt the same way.  Last month, 40 students were arrested during a walkout in protest of Point Loma High Principal Hans Becker’s announcement that the game would be moved to the afternoon.

“I didn’t want my kids, my students here, being a part of what was becoming more and more political, so I decided the way I could take care of things was make it a day game,” said Becker.  Political because many neighbors say night games bring problems, including heavier traffic and more trash on the streets.

The San Diego Unified School District is also conducting an environmental impact report. They’re hoping to get the go-ahead for some “modernization projects” at the school, including adding lights to the stadium. 10News has learned that report should be ready next month.

Many of the neighbors with homes that surround the stadium say they want what’s best for the school, but they also want to protect their neighborhood.  “That’s the primary concern is that after the students go home around 7, after their practices, that it would be rented out to for-profit sports leagues and adult soccer leagues,” said Jennifer Dariani with the neighborhood’s “Pro Point Loma” group.

Pejovich said he hopes the school can continue to grow together with the community.  “We really need to support our schools. It’s very important to give these kids the best possible experience,” said Pejovich.

Hearing Date for Trailer in OB Pier Parking Lot is Dec. 4th

December 4 is the hearing date for Process 3 Review of the infamous trailer in the OB Pier Parking Lot.  It will be at 8:30 am and will be held in Council Chambers on the 12 floor of the City Admin Building, located at 202 C Street in downtown.

Rising Acidity Threatens Marine Ecosystems Off San Diego Beaches

“This is the most pressing issue facing the coastal environment,” said professor Matthew Edwards about acidity levels in the ocean that are expected to rise as climate change continues.

By Susan Murphy/KPBS

Acidity levels in the world’s oceans are rising at an alarming rate, threatening ecosystems and causing biodiversity to change, scientists warn.  The primary cause of ocean acidification is human-made carbon dioxide emissions, according to a new report from the Third Symposium on the Ocean in a High-CO2World, compiled by 540 experts from 37 nations.

The report states oceans could become 170 percent more acidic by 2100 compared to levels before the Industrial Revolution.  Oceans help modify climate change by absorbing about a quarter of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere, but rising carbon dioxide levels are causing the ocean to warm and acidify at a rapid pace.

Matthew Edwards, professor of biology at San Diego State University and the Coastal and Marine Institute Laboratory, has studied the impact of acidification on kelp forests for more than 20 years.

“Particularly, we focus on things that photosynthesize, very much like plants that take energy from the sun and fix carbon dioxide to make sugars and to make plant material,” explained Edwards. “We’re looking at that process in the ocean.”

For the rest of the article, go here.

 Point Loma High Students Join Outcry Over Orca Captivity by SeaWorld

The Cinematic Arts and Video Production students at Point Loma High School had a strong reaction to the documentary “Blackfish” that was broadcast on CNN in October.   Point Loma High students reacting to “Blackfish,” an anti-marine mammal captivity documentary, have created a public service announcement (PSA) asking Sea World to stop using animals for entertainment.  Less than a minute long, the PSA, titled “Dear SeaWorld,” was created by students in Anthony Palmiotto’s Cinematic Arts and Video Production classes.

“We always do a documentary and when it (“Blackfish”) came on basic cable television, I just gave them an open-ended assignment that they could watch it and write something about it, an essay or a movie review,” said Palmiotto. “One of the kids said, ‘Why don’t we make a video?’ Then we started to piece together different reactions from students in different classes. That’s how it came about.”

“Blackfish” explores the accidental deaths of SeaWorld trainers and is critical of keeping killer whales in captivity and having them perform in shows. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, then went mainstream Oct. 24 when it was featured on CNN and became the subject of several CNN news features.

For the remainder of this article, please go to sdnews.com

Unveiling Ceremony for the Rose Creek Community Mural on Dec. 3rd

Organizers are calling for locals to join them in the unveiling ceremony of the Rose Creek Community Mural painted by attendees at Rose Creek Fest, February 2013.   The event is sponsored by Campland on the Bay and San Diego EarthWorks, with other sponsors including Friends of Mission Bay Marshes, Kumeyaay History and Friends of Rose Creek. It will be held at the Mike Gotch Memorial Bridge at the north end of Mission Bay, December 3rd, 2013, 11am.

Major fueling facility to be replaced at Point Loma

A major California fueling facility that plays a critical role in Defense Logistics Agency Energy Americas’ mission will be the site of a construction project for a new fuel pier awarded for $66.3 million with work beginning later this year.

As the only active Navy fueling facility in southern California, DLA Energy-procured fuel and support goes through Naval Base Point Loma in San Diego to support the U.S. Navy, Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.

The military construction project was awarded to replace the fuel pier at NBPL with a new double deck concrete fuel pier. The initial phase of the project will include the construction of mammal pens to protect the impacted wildlife that live at the site. Demolition, dredging and construction at the new site would occur simultaneously and commence in 2013 and conclude in 2017, according to the executive summary of the incidental harassment authorization application submitted by the Navy to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  For more, go to dvids

Arborist to Assist with New Cellular Tower Project in Point Loma

Rappoport Development Consulting Services LLC has been awarded a sub-consultant contract with Plan Com, Inc. for the Catalina Standpipe project. RDCS to provide infrastructure and certified arborist consulting services

The Catalina Standpipe is an eighty-eight foot water standpipe which has cellular components attached to it. A new tower will be built, requiring that these components be removed from the current standpipe and placed on the new. Plan Com, Inc., a telecommunications management consulting firm located in Escondido, California, is proposing that a new cellular tower be built in an adjacent area to the east of the current standpipe. The proposed location for the new seventy-five foot tower is where a grove of Eucalyptus Cladocalyx (Sugar Gum) trees are currently growing.  For more, go to SBwire

 Catch-and-Release Fishing Habits Result in Local Bass Study

We’re coming up on the two-year anniversary for the ocean closures off Southern California caused by the Marine Life Protection Act.  Locally, in addition to those closures that went into effect Jan. 1, 2012, we’ve seen big changes in regulations for barred sand bass, calico bass and spotted bay bass. The limit has been changed from 10 bass to five (combination of all species), and the minimum size limit is 14 inches, up from the traditional 12.

So, not only are local fishermen dealing with closures of key areas off La Jolla and Point Loma, but now they’re restricted further by this change in limit and size for three of the most popular bass to fish.

I met recently with Lyall Bellquist, a graduate student from UCSD, Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A fisherman, diver and hunter, Bellquist knows the value of having recreational fishermen involved in the management process, so he has enlisted them in his two-year study of our local bass population. He has brought together Scripps Institution of Oceanography, the Department of Fish and Wildlife, the San Diego Oceans Foundation and recreational fishermen to conduct a tag-and-release project to measure populations of calico bass, barred sand bass and spotties off coastal San Diego. The study is showing the value of catch-and-release fishing and also the movement patterns of bass to see if there is the spillover effect many proponents of ocean closures touted before the MLPA. Unfortunately for fishermen, all this is happening after the closures and regulation restrictions were enacted.  For more go to U-T San Diego

Stolen PLHS generators put band in dark, help sought in recovering items

Beacon / sdnews.com

The Point Loma High School Band and Colorguard Rehearse-a-thon was in full swing — and it was getting dark. It was time to bring out the generators in order to light the field — but that was not to be. The generators were gone: they were stolen from the Music Center sometime around the beginning of October.

Resourceful band boosters drove their cars to the edge of the field and turned on their headlights so the students could continue practicing and raising money for the program. Losing two Honda EU 2000 generators priced at $1,200 each is a huge blow to a program that depends on fundraisers and donations to sustain its incredible growth over the past four years. The generators, which the program had for less than a year, were also used to power electrical instruments in field competitions, and to power lights in dark parking lots after students return from the field to change out of their uniforms.

The school is investigating the theft, and is asking for the community’s help in recovering the generators. Anyone with information or offers of help can contact music director James Sepulvado at jsepulvado@sandi.net.  Donations to help cover the loss can be made at the band’s website: www.plhsmusic.com/donate.

 Paddle out for deceased OBcean Thomas D Minor on December 7th

Ocean Beach resident Thomas David Minor, 63, was an ardent golfer, artist, traveler when he passed. Funeral services will be held Friday, Nov. 22 at 10 a.m. at St. Hilary’s Church, 5465 Citronell Ave, Pico Rivera, Calif., 90660.

A memorial paddleout will take place Saturday, Dec. 7 at 11 a.m. Participants will meet at the stairs at Sunset Cliffs and Ladera Street.  For more on Minor go to  sdnews.com

Barons Market Hosts Microbrews With Holiday Tastes for the San Diego Food Bank – Dec. 10th

Why does something so seemingly wrong have to be so suspiciously right? Like a chill running down your spine, Mother Earth’s latest addition, SinTax Imperial Stout comes to Barons Market for one of its first-ever tastings on December 10. Paired with a selection of hand-picked seasonal appetizers and three other Mother Earth brews, this limited capacity event is sure to leave a lasting impression. The event will donate one hundred percent of raised funds to the San Diego Food Bank.

Barons Market, a locally owned grocery store that sells simply good food at simply good prices, will present four hand-selected Mother Earth beers — Pin-up Pale Ale, Cali Creamin’ Cream Ale, Kismet IPA and the enticing SinTax Imperial Stout, described as its own guilty pleasure. Barons Market will pair these microbrews with expertly chosen seasonal appetizers for a delectable holiday event.

“We’re known as the IPA Capital of San Diego, and this winter we want to uphold our title,” said Rachel Shemirani of Barons Market. “We’re inviting you to sip divine microbrews paired with irresistible seasonal appetizers for a good cause — ensuring everyone has food on their plate this holiday season.”

In the spirit of giving, Barons and Mother Earth will offer two pairs of free tasting tickets to their Facebook fans that comment on the Barons Market event page with their favorite holiday indulgence. For those who wish to ensure a place at the exclusive tasting, tickets for ‘Tis the Season with Mother Earth can be purchased for $5 here.

Space is limited. The Barons Market food and beer pairing on December 10 will take place from 6-8 p.m. at Barons Market, located at 4001 W. Point Loma Blvd.