By Judi Curry
The Mission Bay Park Committee unanimously passed an agenda item that I have been working for for the past umpteen years! They answered in the affirmative: “Shall the Mission Bay Park Committee take a position and submit letters to the City of San Diego and the California Coastal Commission supporting the cessation of fireworks displays in and over Mission Bay?”
They will draft and submit a letter in October supporting the cessation of fireworks since the Audubon Society showed a huge impact on the Least Terns in the past years. Dozens washed up dead recently, and the main cause is the residue from the fireworks!
From the City:
The Mission Bay Park Committee advises the Park and Recreation Board on the development, utilization, and policies regarding Mission Bay Park. The Committee meets the first Tuesday of each month, 6 p.m., at various locations.
Here is a separate report from Voice of San Diego:
Mission Bay Park’s leaders took action against SeaWorld and other fireworks displays that bird advocates blame for the littering of bird bodies along the bay shore this Fourth of July holiday.
All nine members of the Mission Bay Park Committee decided to draft a letter to city and state officials stating concerns over fireworks displays launched at Mission Bay both legally and illegally.
SeaWorld San Diego ignited over 500 pounds of explosives from Fiesta Island during the Fourth of July. The animal theme park lights fireworks every single evening during the summertime, and bird advocates want that to stop. San Diego Bird Alliance (formerly known as the San Diego Audubon Society) called on the city and state to revoke SeaWorld’s fireworks permit, arguing the pyrotechnics disrupt nesting sea birds, some of which are endangered.
“We support the park committee’s emphasis on improving management of Mission Bay by removing these disturbances that affect and harm wildlife,” said Andrew Meyer, San Diego Bird Alliance’s director of conservation.
The park committee plans to review and approve a draft of their letter at their October meeting.
It has been suggested that the readers of the OBRag – and elsewhere – should contact the PB town council, the OB Community Foundation (Town council) and City Council supporting the cessation of the fireworks so that these living creatures can live and reproduce. And….you know if the fireworks are unhealthy for the birds, what must they be doing for the mammals, the creatures living in the bay/oceans, etc. (to say nothing of what the residue is doing to the humans breathing in the polluted air on a daily basis?)
Thank you Mission Bay Park committee. There is hope!!!
Maybe the air we breathe will be less polluted
Some progress! In addition to sending getting support from the local town councils. Also please reach out to to the city environment committee where Joe Lacava and Jen Campbell are part of! You can send letter here – https://sxfa.org/seaworld-fireworks-ban/
Seaworld is an easy target but they contribute substantial lease revenue to the city which funds our park system. We should not take their presence for granted. Covid also hit them hard. If they go BK or pick up and leave, expect to see Midway Rising #2 take it’s place. I think it’s even more acreage.
The pyrotechnics, we can certainly live without. There are friendly alternatives, but at what cost?
SeaWorld is a public for profit company – they don’t break out income or revenue by individual parks – but as a whole they are doing better than they were doing pre covid. If you compare 2019 numbers to 2024 numbers. And have made over $200 million in net income over the last year.
As a whole they are nowhere close to having any financial issues.
They also are getting sued by the city for not paying rent and are still keeping those poor orcas in captivity.
They have a 50 year lease with the city – they are no danger of going BK or leaving anytime soon unfortunately.
I love fireworks; always have and probably always will. However, the nightly SeaWorld displays only remind me of the $12,000,000 (or $12.3 mil, but who’s counting?) in unpaid rent. This debt is now four years past due, and the city has filed suit to try and collect. OK, what’s worse for me is having read that fireworks are very expensive, a specialty, a true art form, with secrets passed down through generations of a few families. So I did a few seconds of research on the current cost, possibly $2,000 per minute. These funds, which go up in smoke and noise (and yes, beautiful glowing embers of many colors, but I digress), these funds should be used to pay the past due rent! Also, fireworks displays have traditionally been reserved to celebrate special occasions, routine use renders them meaningless. As you pointed out, SeaWorld is not the worst neighbor we could have. If they would just quit with the pesky fireworks, build only a FEW more educational roller coasters, they will delay a worse alternative.
Seaworld is an abomination, tormenting huge mammals in indentured servitude for the extent of their lives. Can you begin to imagine these beautiful intelligent mammals who are meant to live in the ocean, live their lives, mate, have offspring, swim freely, use their echo locution to find food or a mate?These mammals are enslaved to a life that is hellish, living in a giant bathtub while spectators laugh and scream at their forced “tricks.” Someone please protest for these beautiful intelligent mammals to get their freedom and relief from indentured servitude.
concentration camp for mammals
This seems a little unreasonable. Not that there is no impact, but that Sea World fireworks are an institution. If you want to preserve or improve the quality of Mission Bay (and other SD waterways), how about addressing something that is a newer problem – specifically homeless encampments. You can see the fireworks (that’s the point), but you do not as easily see the impact of the complete lack of any sanitation and trash facilities at that these encampments that result it those items going straight into the waterway.
PS – The irony of this is that the “newer article” below the comment section lists “Thunderboats Return to Mission Bay”, which packages a half years worth of fireworks pollution into a single weekend.
I find it interesting that so many complain about how the fireworks cause so many contamination issues. How come no one speaks about the toxic waste dump Seaworld sits on? How come no one speaks about all the heavy metals and chemicals that sit just under the surface there caused by manufacturing in the 1940s and beyond. Why is there no one talking about cleaning up the contaminated soils over there? Not to mention the years that Fiesta Island was used as a sewage drying site. No one talks about the heavy metals and biohazards in the soils over there either.
I think it should all be looked at as a compleat restoration project. Not just a fireworks scare my dog and some birds issue.
Don, these are good questions. However about 2001 or so, then-councilmember Donna Frye financed a scientific study of the contamination area. The basic conclusion (and I’m sure Judy Swink will correct me) was that unless it was disturbed the underground contamination would not “surface” and pose a risk to humans. I was on that committee.
I do remember some of that. In fact, there are monitoring wells that were drilled east of Seaworld for the monitoring of ground water. It seems strange that a hotel was in the planning stages for the area east of Seaworld but was never built. Wasn’t that due to the contamination in the area?
Pick one side or the other, years ago, SeaWorld stopped the fireworks displays due to public outcry. They got slammed with lawsuits by AirBnB owners, VRBO, etc. claiming that they are losing revenue because they advertised on their listings you could see the fireworks. They get slammed either way.
I’m not a SeaWorld soldier, however, no one is mentioning the fact that the NOAA, CalOES, and the County of San Diego all deem SeaWorld to be responsible for every single beached animal, if you don’t like it, lobby, advocate, run for office.
Also, SeaWorld contributes a HUGE amount to our local economy in the ways of, for a lot of people, their first job in a corporate setting. If you’d like to set all the Orca’s free, than I’d like you to simply google what happened to Keiko, the Orca based on Free Willy. He died of pneumonia six months after being released, attempting to have humans help him in the Gulf of Norway. At least, while these amazing mammals are here, they have a team of trainers, and veterinarians, and staff who love them. By the way, look at a United Parks and Resorts (their parent company) current SEC 8-K, they might be bringing in revenue, however, their profit margin is shrinking and their debt is majorly increasing.
https://d18rn0p25nwr6d.cloudfront.net/CIK-0001564902/05e89667-434c-40de-9727-c529a99df801.pdf