Chamber to Campaign for City to Live Up to Its Name

Seal Beach is searching for an identity it can live with. Not only has this northernmost Orange County beach community had different names, it’s had varying reputations.

At one time, during the late 1800s, the area was known as Anaheim Landing; in the early 1900s, it was the Bay City. From a place where farmers dropped off fruits and vegetables to be shipped up and down the coast to one where Prohibition-era rumrunners smuggled liquor ashore, Seal Beach has had a storied past.

Tonight at City Hall, the Chamber of Commerce and Business Assn. will present a campaign that will draw on the city’s name. Chamber member Steve Masoner will talk about putting the seals back in Seal Beach.

City records show there were seals and sea lions in the area at one time. In 1915, a member of the state Legislature, who petitioned to have the town incorporated, had to change the Bay City name because the name had already been claimed by a Northern California city.

His selection was influenced by the sight of tourists marveling at the local “frolicking seals.” A photo taken in 1928 and published in the book “A Story of Seal Beach” shows a young girl feeding a seal pup.

In recent years, pollution and sparse marine plant life have kept the seals away.

With the help of a national effort by the Sierra Club to restore and protect ocean waters, Masoner hopes the community, including businesses, will get behind his Save Our Seals campaign.

“This is not just about bringing seals back to Seal Beach,” Masoner said. “It’s about cleaning up our ocean waters.”

The Sierra Club will officially kick off its campaign April 22, which is Earth Day. The environmental group will attempt to get 20% of the nation’s coastal waters federally protected by 2020. Today, less than 1% of coastal waters are federally protected.

The national effort will include installing floating aquariums constructed of old naval barges off the coast. The aquariums will serve as a home to captive sea life, including rehabilitated seals and sea lions from rescue shelters.

The possibility of using one of the floating aquariums as a Seal Beach attraction has Masoner and others excited. He said he doesn’t know the specifics about the barge-to-aquarium conversion--only that he would like to “begin the thought process.”

Tonight’s 7 o’clock presentation at City Hall will not include any official city action. However, if the chamber’s Friday business meeting is any indication, the topic will have its detractors.

Although most at the meeting were in favor of the campaign, at least one businessman was opposed to the idea. He expressed concerns about seal overpopulation.

Seals and sea lions have been popular elsewhere along the coast, but some people consider them a nuisance.

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Alex Murashko can be reached at (714) 966-5974.