Newport Beach examining duck-feeding law

June Casagrande

BALBOA ISLAND -- Responding to residents’ complaints that the scores

of ducks flocking around one Grand Canal home have created a smelly

nuisance, city officials have drafted a law to restrict feeding and

breeding waterfowl in the city.

“I’ve had probably 20 complaints about the duck issue on Grand Canal.

It’s a problem that’s been ongoing for years,” said City Councilman

Steven Bromberg, whose district includes Balboa Island.

At Bromberg’s request, city staff have written a preliminary ordinance

to prohibit all but “de minimus” feeding of ducks. The legalese allows

the city to control situations such as the one on Grand Canal without

being overly restrictive.

The law, if approved, would allow kids with a slice of bread to feed

ducks but would prohibit incubating and “long-term, ongoing habitation,

like setting out a bin of day-old bread for duck food,” Assistant City

Manager Dave Kiff explained.

The Harbor Quality Committee will look at the proposed ordinance at

its meeting today.

The owner of the home, who the Daily Pilot has decided not to

identify, could not be reached for comment.

Bromberg emphasized that the proposed law is still in rough-draft

form.

Odor is just one of the problems caused by the ducks that loiter on

the private dock and in other places in the city, officials say.

“When humans feed the animals, they think they’re doing good, but it

basically also destroys the natural behavior of those animals. They lose

their fear of humans, it trains new generations of animals to not survive

in the wild, to be dependent on humans,” said Mervin Hee, regional patrol

chief for the Department of Fish and Game.

One problem, experts say, is that migratory patterns are upset when

humans feed ducks and other waterfowl.

Feeding ducks can also create health risks to humans and animals by

raising water bacteria levels high enough to prompt water safety warnings

or even close swimming areas, Kiff explained. The bacteria found in one

duck dropping is thousands of times higher than the quantity that, when

found in a water sample, is required to close a beach.