Barge repairs complete

Andrew Edwards

Barking sea lions do not seem to be a problem anymore at a Newport

Harbor barge that had become a hangout for the animals.

“Looks to me like they pretty much got them shut off the barge,”

Balboa Peninsula resident Dan Gilliland said.

Gilliland recently submitted a petition with about 40 signatures

to city officials asking that the barge be relocated. Neighbors

living near the barge were bothered by the sea lions making noise day

and night and felt the barge’s appearance did not fit the harbor’s

ambience.

The barge’s operators set to work last week to make the barge sea

lion proof, adding plywood and reinforced screens. During an

inspection Monday, the barge looked ship-shape, Newport Harbor

Resources Supervisor Chris Miller said.

“The volunteers at the Balboa Angling Club did a great job of

cleaning up the area, and they totally secured it,” Miller said.

The Balboa Angling Club is affiliated with the nonprofit Pacific

Fisheries Enhancement Foundation, which uses the barge to raise white

sea bass. The sea lions found a way into the barge shortly before

Memorial Day, disrupting fishery operations.

Sea lions “are very intelligent and determined, so we’re keeping

our fingers crossed,” foundation president Alex Samios said.

Samios said the repairs made the barge strong enough to resist sea

lions’ efforts to break into the facility.

“They can ram it all they want. It’s going to hurt,” he said.

The sea lions’ arrival prevented a new batch of young sea bass

from being delivered to the barge, Samios said. He expects work to

raise fish will resume around September. The next steps for the barge

are to make additional repairs to damage caused by sea lions and to

spruce up the facility.

From the shore, the barge looks like a floating cage, and

homeowners with harbor views would still like the barge to be moved,

Gilliland said. He said neighbors are not actively seeking the

facility’s relocation now.

Miller said the barge could find a new home in a more commercial

part of the harbor near Lido Peninsula. He said no plans are underway

to move the facility to a new mooring.

Samios said he does not see a compelling reason to move the

facility.

“Why put it in front of someone else’s house?” he asked.

“Conservation’s never a bed of roses,” he said.