Long has La Jolla, San Diego's glittering beaches on the California coast attracted scores of tourists and visitors from the world over. Its jagged rocks, sprawling jetties and endless sands render it a gem by the ocean: restaurants, hotels, and high rollers like Mitt Romney also reside there.
It seems the birds love the seascape just as much as the people, and this surplus of birds is creating a problem.
Well, it's not the birds, really. It's what they leave behind that's making both visitors and residents turn their noses up in disgust.
Because of extensive and strict environmental protection laws that ensure La Jolla beach's preservation, endangered species of cormorant birds and brown pelicans have been brought back.
Their feces has positively caked rocks along the water, and some business owners say their numbers have been compromised at the hands, er, talons, of these seaside animals.
Christina Collignon, who is a hostess at steakhouse Eddie V's says many diners who eating al fresco have gone inside due to the stench.
"We've had to relocate tables inside because when people go out to the patio, some are like, 'Oh my God. I can't handle the smell,'" she told the Associated Press.
Owner of gourmet restaurant George's At The Cove, George Hauer, has taken this matter very seriously, as he started an online petition stating the smell of excrement is too grave to cast off any longer.
"The cormorant colony at the La Jolla cove has reached critical mass...the smell is overtaking the entire village. The result is a loss of business and a potential health disaster," the petition reads.
Over 1,500 have signed said petition since its launch.
Scientists maintain this is not necessarily a bad thing, nor is it something that can be necessarily helped, especially since legislation was put in place to save the birds to begin with.
"We're kind of a victim of our own success," said La Jolla marine biologist Robert Pitman. "We've provided a lot of bird protections so now we're getting a lot of birds...I think there'll have to be compromises all around."
He also noted that California waters in this area are also under fervent protection, which, naturally, attracts more birds.
Officials maintain that any kind of lengthy cleaning requires a permit; even if business owners and others who are fed up with the poop get their way, there is still an enormous risk of cleaning solution inevitably running into the water.
Waiter Anton Marek watched tourists outside the restaurant he works taking photos of the birds standing on rocks in the Southern California sun.
"I guess it's the price you have to pay for having a locale this close to paradise," he said.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
