Project May Hurt Dolphin Habitat, OCC Biologist Says

Nine times, dolphin expert Dennis Kelly has scanned the waters off Crystal Cove State Park and witnessed the ring of dolphins.

He describes as many as eight bottlenose dolphins forming a tight circle around a birthing female, their beaks pointed inward, drifting for hours close to the sandy shore. When the baby calf is born, the other dolphins nuzzle and rub it like attentive relatives before moving on through the waters.

What Kelly has seen makes him think the picturesque cove between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach is an unusual “safe haven” for dolphins giving birth, the only such spot he knows of in Orange County. And now that the state is gearing up for a $23 million resort redevelopment on a portion of the park, Kelly fears the dolphins will suffer.

“What you have is a really unique behavior going on there,” said Kelly, professor of marine biology at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa and director of the Coastal Dolphin Survey Project, a 19-year-old effort to study the county’s dolphin population.

“I’m really concerned about this. I don’t see that these animals are being taken into account.”

But state parks officials say they believe they can adequately protect the dolphins. They confirmed this week that they are in final negotiations with Santa Barbara-based Investec to build and operate the resort, which involves the remodeling of about 40 old cottages as hotel rentals for $100 to $400 a night.

The project follows years of debate over the future of the colony of 1920s and 1930s bungalows in a cove that served as a backdrop in the movie “Beaches.” The colony is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the last intact example of “vernacular beach architecture.”

Not only will a historic site be altered, Kelly fears, but a habitat could be destroyed.

“I think what it will do is drive them off,” he said. “I think this behavior will stop.”

In addition to seeing the dolphin rings nine times at Crystal Cove since 1982, he has seen them twice, in the early 1980s, off San Onofre State Beach, he said. He has written a paper about the phenomenon but is hoping to obtain “irrefutable photographic evidence” before submitting it for publication.

Two other marine mammal researchers said they have not seen the birthing ring phenomenon but believe it’s feasible.

“If Dennis tells me that’s what he observed, I believe him,” said R.H. Defran, a San Diego State University psychology professor and director of the Cetacean Behavior Laboratory. “He’s a trustworthy guy, and I think he’s a careful observer.”

Daniela Feinholz, research coordinator with the Pacific Cetacean Group in Monterey, said she has talked to two people who have witnessed similar dolphin behavior in two locations--including Crystal Cove--in Southern California.

In general, dolphins interact socially and in groups, Feinholz said. With the park redevelopment pending, she said, “The need for investigating this is greater now.”

David R. Pryor, a park resource ecologist, said he also has never seen the birthing behavior but has talked to a park ranger who has. But Pryor said he doesn’t believe the development will harm local marine animals.

Kelly says he has tried repeatedly to spark interest among parks officials. In a January 1996 letter, he warned of “the potential damage that making this area off the coast more accessible to the general public could have on the local marine mammals.”

He lauds the current residents of the cottages for serving as wardens for the dolphins, monitoring their welfare, educating beach visitors and reporting dolphin sightings, deaths and harassment by jet skiers.

But he doubts that tourists staying briefly at the new resort will prove such stalwart guardians.

In a February 1996 response to Kelly, a state parks official promised that the redevelopment plan will include an interpretive center that can help educate people about dolphins.

Moreover, park staff can help monitor the dolphins once the cottage residents have moved out, the letter says.

“We would be glad to assist with this species’ sensitivities and the Coastal Dolphin Survey Project, and in informing the public in the absence of our long-term, unofficial ‘wardens’ of Crystal Cove.”