Venice Beach, CA - Eruv for Beach Raises Environmental Fears

Venice Beach, CA - Orthodox Jews who want to use a strand of fishing line several miles long to create a eruv for the Beach's boardwalk are getting entangled in a dispute with beachfront residents and California environmentalists, who fear the string will snag birds and spoil the ocean view.

The 70 or so families who attend a synagogue on Venice Beach's boardwalk are asking coastal regulators for permission to string the eruv above one of Southern California's most popular stretches of sand, and that would entail stringing 200-pound test fishing line between lamp posts. It would also involve erecting 20-foot metal poles that would extend above 19 welcome-to-the-beach signs.

The problem for the environmentalists they say is that California law calls for the protection of public views along the coast and the habitats of nesting shore birds. Also do they fear that this will endanger California's least terns that nest nearby and it will fly into the fishing line and get killed. The residents say that the galvanized steel poles that will be erected to hold up the fishing line along the beach will be an eyesore.

The Coastal Commission staff, which has been working with the Orthodox group to try to resolve the environmental concerns, may recommend approving the eruv for a three-year trial, said Peter Douglas, executive director. "We try and accommodate religious practices any way we can," he said. "It's just that we have a balancing act to do, taking into account other public interests including wildlife impacts."