Was It Spite that Caused Navy to Force Park Service to Close Down Popular Web Cam at Cabrillo Monument?

A screen grab of the Navy “warship chicken” incident captured by the web cam.

A popular web cam at Cabrillo Monument that has provided millions of viewers with a look over San Diego Bay has  been closed down by the Park Service after pressure from the Navy. The live web cam has been on for 10 years and last year had more than 6 million views.

The founder of the webcam and YouTube channel, Barry Bahrami, said he was shocked to learn the Navy had concerns and asked the National Park Service to turn it off. He told CBS8 ,

“This was done in spite. There is no way you can tell me otherwise.”

According to reporter Jasmine Ramirez, Bahrami’s “camera captured the warship ‘chicken incident’ when two Navy ships looked like they would collide. Bahrami says his webcam was shut off Tuesday, one day before the Navy released its report on the incident. ” He told the station:

“I was warned back when warship chicken happened that Navy officials … were pretty upset.”

Ramirez reported:

For the past ten years, the webcam has allowed people to catch scenic views of the San Diego skyline and ships passing by.

“Everything that people were coming here to see, you could see it on the San Diego webcam,” said Barry Bahrami, the founder of the San Diego webcam and YouTube channel.

The camera had more than six million views last year. Navy families watched it to see their loved ones come home from deployment, and Bahrami said the U.S. Coast Guard used the camera for rescues. Last week the camera went black.

CBS8 reached out to N

CBS 8 received the following statement from Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and received this response:

“NCIS informally expressed force protection concerns to the National Park Service related to the private webcams and YouTube channel, which provided 24-hour webcam monitoring of vessels and equities located aboard Naval Air Station North Island, including aircraft hangers/flight lines, Naval Base Point Loma submarine assets, and the tracking of military personnel working aboard Naval Base Coronado. We look forward to continuing close coordination with NPS,” said Jeff Houston of NCIS Public Affairs.

Bahrami denied the webcam was a threat and stated:

“The whole argument of forced protection is nonsensical when you figure that anyone that comes here can see way more than we ever dared show on a live stream.”

Meanwhile, Bahrami says the National Park Service can just turn the camera back on. In the meantime, he’s planning to set up new cameras near the Cabrillo Monument that will give similar views of the bay.