Drive to Ban Boats in La Jolla Cove Encounters Rough Waters

There is nothing, Jim Triolo says, like an invigorating swim in the cool, briny waters of La Jolla Cove.

“It’s a joy, a tremendous physical exertion, a true psychological lift,” says Triolo, 72, who wades through the cove’s mild surf to begin his one-mile workout five days a week. “Just 30 minutes out there and I feel like a million bucks.”

One thing, however, can spoil those peaceful noontime swims--the motorboats that occasionally cut a foamy trough across the bay.

Although Triolo and fellow rough-water swimmers wear bright orange bathing caps designed to call attention to their presence, a choppy swell can obscure their moving bodies and make them easy targets for even the most careful boater.

“The visibility is very poor at water level and I’ve thought often about getting struck by a propeller,” said Triolo, assistant to the president of Scripps Clinic. “I must say, the prospect is not an inviting one.”

Triolo, a regular at the cove since 1931, may not be haunted by those fears much longer. The San Diego City Council has tentatively approved the creation of a boat-free zone at the cove in an effort to protect swimmers from the hazards of moving craft.

All vessels--including sailboats, rowboats and jet skis--would be prohibited in the zone, although lifeguard vessels would be permitted to enter the zone to make rescues. The zone would be marked by buoys and violators would be cited.

Under the council’s plan, which must be reviewed by several state and federal agencies and approved a second time in November, a large, 5-m.p.h. speed zone would surround the boat-free area, providing yet another safeguard against accidents.

Rough-water swimmers, who describe La Jolla Cove as the premier venue for their sport on the West Coast, are delighted with the no-boat zone, saying it is long overdue and a fair compromise that evenly balances the rights of bathers and boaters.

But others disagree. Fishermen have registered complaints about both the 5-m.p.h. speed limit--which will make the journey to lobster traps and fishing grounds a tedious one--and the near-shore boating ban, which they view as an infringement on their rights to freely navigate coastal waters.

Still more upset are divers, who say the boat-free zone, apparently the first of its kind in Southern California, will limit their access to an area famous worldwide for its kelp beds, underwater finger canyons and rich diversity of marine life. Three particularly enticing reefs are within the no-boat zone.

Scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, meanwhile, contend that they will have difficulty reaching experiments on the cove’s ocean bottom if they are unable to use boats to shuttle equipment--and researchers--into the scenic area.

“To ban small boats is to hurt our ability to get into an area with a very diverse bottom where we do quite a lot of research work,” said Jim Stewart, diving officer at Scripps. “It’s a helluva swim from the beach to some of those areas, and if you’re loaded down with gear and getting along in years, it’s an even greater struggle.”

Also opposed to the boat-free zone is the council-appointed advisory committee on the San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park, a 6,000-acre area that stretches from the cove north to Torrey Pines State Beach. The committee, which includes representatives of diving groups, sportfishermen, the state Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Department of the Interior and Scripps, voted unanimously to oppose the boat ban, although it supports the 5-m.p.h. speed limit.

Stewart, a former chairman of the nine-member advisory panel, said the underwater park was created in 1970 and intended to be a “natural, untouched, underwater environment for study” and recreational viewing.

The no-boat zone straddles a particularly popular section of the park set aside through state legislation as an underwater ecological reserve. Stewart and others argue that prohibiting boats in the reserve effectively puts much of the highly intriguing area out of their reach.

“Seems to me the City Council has simply forgotten what the underwater park is all about,” said Al Bruton, a local diving instructor and underwater photographer who serves on the advisory committee. “I’m discouraged and angry. A no-boat zone completely undermines the integrity of the park.”

Rough-water swimmers, who lobbied hard for the boat-free zone, say they are surprised by the opposition their proposal has triggered. For one thing, they don’t understand why divers could not simply anchor outside the zone and swim in.

“I would think divers would benefit tremendously from the zone,” said Robert Vallera Jr., president of the La Jolla Cove Swim Club, which has led the fight for a boat ban. “When they’re surfacing, they can’t see a thing. I’ve personally heard divers express fears about getting whacked out there.”

As for boating enthusiasts, the rough-water swimmers wonder if that group isn’t just being a bit selfish.

“It seems to me the boaters have a lot of ocean to race around on,” said Triolo, the La Jolla swim club’s oldest member. “All we’re asking for is this one protected little area.”

According to Vallera, the 80-member swim club has for years kicked around the idea of a boat-free zone at the cove, which is used by an estimated 300 distance swimmers on a typical sunny summer Saturday.

“Motorboats have always been a concern out there,” said Vallera, 26, an investment real estate broker and La Jolla native. “But in the past, there just wasn’t much impetus to take action.”

On Memorial Day the swim club, founded a decade ago to sponsor rough-water swims and other recreational events, suddenly had reason to act. Lauren Doyle, a triathlete and Phoenix resident, was run over by a motorboat while swimming--complete with orange bathing cap--at the cove.

According to her San Diego attorney, Jack Phillips, Doyle’s left arm suffered a long, deep gash that cut to the bone and caused muscle and nerve damage. She is undergoing physical therapy but still cannot straighten her arm, he said.

Last week, the City Council rejected a $10-million administrative claim filed by Doyle, who contends she was struck by a lifeguard boat. Although the city’s Risk Management Department concluded that there was, indeed, a lifeguard boat in the area that day, department director Bruce Herring said there were several private vessels buzzing about as well. Authorities were unable to confirm just who struck the swimmer because there were no witnesses, Herring said.

Phillips, however, maintains that there was a witness and he said there is “absolutely no doubt it was a lifeguard boat.” He intends to file a lawsuit against the city in the coming weeks.

Spurred by the accident, the swim club brought a proposal for a boat-free zone before the City Council Public Facilities and Recreation Committee. The La Jolla Town Council passed a resolution supporting the idea, and Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer, whose district includes La Jolla, soon dived into the fray, ultimately sponsoring the ordinance creating the zone.

The city’s Park and Recreation Department recommended a 5-m.p.h. speed limit in the cove and the entire ecological reserve area--which stretches northward to a point just south of Scripps Pier--as the answer to the swimmers’ concerns.

“We thought that would do the trick, and we had concerns about the cost of implementing a boat-free zone and the difficulty of enforcing it,” said city lifeguard Capt. Bill Norton. “In wintertime, for example, we only have one person on duty at the cove. I didn’t want him tied up watching for boats all day.”

Divers and some boaters also felt a speed limit was the proper tactic. Bert Kobayashi, who represents the San Diego Diving Instructors Assn. and teaches a UC San Diego underwater biology course at the cove, said the city should have tried slowing boats down before banning them altogether.

“With boats going 5 m.p.h.--that’s very slow, with practically no wakes--there would be a note of caution but everyone could continue their own work and play uninterrupted,” he said.

Swim club members, however, weren’t satisfied with the speed-limit approach. The potential for accident, they said, remained. Wolfsheimer agreed.

“If you have boats in there, you’re running the risk that swimmers won’t be seen and may be hit,” the councilwoman said. “We’ve already had one tragedy. And after all, the whole ocean is available to boaters.”

So, despite protests from Scripps, the San Diego Diving Instructors Assn., the council’s own advisory committee on the underwater park, recreational boaters, and fishermen, the proposal for a boat-free zone moved forward.

On Oct. 6, the council approved creation of the zone and a newly aligned rough-water swim course. The existing swim course is a two-leg route that runs northward and then westerly and is directly in the path of boat traffic. The new course is a straight, narrow corridor running close to the cliffs for half a mile northward, toward La Jolla Shores beach.

City officials estimate first-year costs for the zone will total $31,390 for the purchase and maintenance of buoys and signs to mark the area.

Despite the council’s endorsement, the boat ban still must be approved by the Department of Fish and Game, the state Department of Boating and Waterways, the California Coastal Commission and the U.S. Coast Guard. Deputy City Atty. Rudy Hradecky has said that the council has the legal right to establish the zone, but if Boating and Waterways officials object, the move may ultimately require special state legislation.

Moreover, the council is likely to face considerable opposition from divers and boating interests at the Nov. 3 hearing on the zone. Spokesmen for those groups said they were not notified of the hearing last week and therefore were unable to express their opposition.

“This thing was railroaded through and we’re very upset about it,” said Bruton, 45, who frequently uses a small outboard motorboat to teach diving at the cove. “We’re going to make our point heard with the Coastal Commission and whatever other agencies are involved.

“If it’s necessary to pack the council chambers, you can bet we’ll do it.”