... They’re back

They call it the scarecrow.

The question is whether it will work on sea lions.

The pesky pinnipeds have been causing grief in Newport Harbor since 2005, when they began annoying waterfront residents with their barking and climbing aboard boats, even sinking one.

Now they’re back, they’re growing bolder, and they’re still protected from human harassment by federal law.

But the Newport Beach harbor resources department is testing a device that may help. The “scarecrow” is made of parts from the hardware store and a boating catalog that cost about $300, and it’s designed to spray sea lions with water when they try to board boats in the harbor.

“It’s a motion-activated-sensor sprinkler system,” harbor resources supervisor Chris Miller said Tuesday. “The theory is that when the sea lions come aboard they will get squirted off.”

Sea lions live in the water, so it doesn’t seem logical that a little more of it would deter them. But apparently they don’t like to get wet once they’ve “hauled out” onto a boat deck to get warm, Miller said.

“What we’ve found is just the act of splashing water in their general direction and not even hitting them sometimes will get rid of them,” he said.

Harbor resources officials wanted something they could recommend to boat owners, who are now subject to fines if they don’t keep sea lions off their boats. The Newport Beach City Council in February approved rules to deter sea lions, but there wasn’t any reason to use them until the animals returned to the harbor about three weeks ago.

So city workers built the scarecrow. Next: a test.

First, they put a boat they thought sea lions would like out on a mooring. The sea lions came.

On Tuesday, they mounted the scarecrow on the boat. Miller said they’ll monitor the boat for a few days to see how the sea lions react. If they stay away, the scarecrow will be another option for boat owners to keep the pinnipeds at bay.

“It’s fairly crude-looking, but certainly we are hopeful that it’ll be effective,” he said.

The scarecrow could help boat owners like Eric Mears, a Cypress resident who has had his double-hulled catamaran moored in Newport for about a year. Sea lions weren’t a problem for him last year, he said ? it was enough to fold the extendable ladders up over the steps on each hull.

But lately the animals have been more aggressive. Last week he got a call that two or three males weighing as much as 500 pounds each had boarded his boat, causing some damage.

So last weekend he tied kayaks to the sides of the boat to cover the steps, and he put up a guard rail of 2-by-4s.

“I’ll have to see whether this is a permanent solution or not, because these guys are getting smarter,” he said.

QUESTION

What’s your bright idea about how to keep sea lions off boats? Call our Readers Hotline at (714) 966-4664 or send e-mail to [email protected]. Please spell your name and tell us your hometown and phone numbers for verification purposes only.dpt.10-sealions-1-CPhotoInfoFV1QPM4M20060510iz0ulwnc(LA)Sea lions lounge on a boat moored in Newport Harbor. Newport Beach officials have built a scarecrow-like device to keep the animals away from boats.dpt.10-sealions-2-BPhotoInfoFV1QPR7D20060510iz0um9nc(LA)The scarecrow device is meant to keep sea lions off boats.