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FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2013
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LJTODAY.COM | VOLUME 18, NUMBER 24
James Cameron feted at Scripps By KENDRA HARTMANN
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Art shines in
La Jolla
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1. “The Waterhouse,” Paul Bond 2. “Port Town Sand, WA,” Youngbok Park 3. “Inspiration,” Ora Tamir 4. “Italian Apartments,” Robert Weil
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Annual festival sees 27th installment at UCSD’s Warren Field Artists and art lovers will descend on UCSD’s Warren Field once again for the 27th annual La Jolla Festival of the Arts on June 22 and 23. Bringing together 200 artists, entertainment, wine, beer, food and live performance art, the festival, produced by the Torrey Pines Kiwanis Club, runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Among the area artists featured will be: • Husband-and-wife team Jeremy and Gabriela Firehammer, who cut and polish each stone by hand before inlaying them in stainless steel, creating geometric sculptures and wall hangings • Escondido-based impressionist Robert Ferguson,
whose landscapes are drawn exclusively from plein-air studies in Europe and the Western U.S. • Electrical engineer-turned-photographer Dave Ness, who takes photographs of landscapes, wildlife and unique abstracts • Local sculptor Amos Robinson, who transforms sheets of solid steel into fluid shapes to create graceful sculptures and mobiles
Tickets can be purchased online for $12 until June 21 or for $14 at the door. Active-duty military and children ages 16 and under admitted free. Abundant free parking is available. For more information, visit www.ljfa.org. — Kendra Hartmann
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) received a donation of titanic proportions on May 31 when filmmaker and ocean explorer James Cameron bestowed upon the institution a key piece of oceanographic exploration equipment, along with $25,000. The “Titanic” and “Avatar” director, who last year completed the first solo dive to Challenger Deep, the world’s deepest point in the Mariana Trench, was the 2013 recipient of SIO’s Nierenberg Prize for Science in the Public Interest. He accepted the prize at a ceremony and lecture at UCSD on May 31, only to turn around and donate the $25,000 prize money to the institution, along with a “lander” system, an extremedepth exploration device Cameron used during his record-breaking descent. In a discussion in SIO’s “Lander Lab” prior to the award ceremony, Cameron talked about the important role the lander plays in gathering information about earth’s most little-known sites.
Mayor: ‘The end of the poop has arrived’ By MARIKO LAMB “This is a great day in the history of La Jolla,” said Mayor Bob Filner at a press conference at La Jolla Cove on May 28. “The end of the poop has arrived.” Blue Eagle Cleaning, an all-natural cleaning solutions company, tested a microbial cleaner on pilot plots north of the primary cormorant mess at La Jolla Cove that same day. If the test treatment proves to be effective at eliminating the bird droppings and odor that emanates from them without affecting the water or sealife, a full-scale treatment of the entire affected bluff will begin June 10. The cleaning solution is an all-natural bacteria blend that effectively eats away at the waste material. According to biological consultant Keith Merkel of Merkel &
THE PROBLEM WITH POOP The buildup of excrement from sea birds and marine mammals that have taken up residence at the Cove has created a foul stench and a problem for local business owners. MARIKO LAMB
Associates, the treatment is safe for the environment and effective at quelling the odor almost immediately after its first treatment.
DEEP-SEA DONATION The deep-sea lander instrument donated to Scripps by filmmaker James Cameron. COURTESY PHOTO BY CHARLIE ANDERSON
“My part and my submarine capture public imagination, but [the lander] is the true workhorse,” said Cameron, who was featured on the June cover of National Geographic for his historic dive. “A large part is done by this vehicle in terms of getting the science done. It’s very powerful.” The lander, which was developed by Scripps engineer Kevin Hardy, includes an instrument frame, command and control spheres, empty camera spheres, buoyancy spheres, water and biological sampling systems and deck support gear. The instrument will be put to work immediately. Scripps marine microbiologist Doug Bartlett, who served as the chief scientist on Cameron’s expedition, said it may be used to collect samples of seawater, sediment, microbes and more in the Sirena Deep, one of the world’s deepest points, as early as this month. “There’s a perception we’ve explored the entire planet, but that’s just wrong,” Cameron said. “The hadal depths (the deepest zones in the ocean) start below the abyssal depths, and if you took the area of all these trenches and added it up, it’s a greater area than North America.” Asked if he was afraid to travel alone to such depths, Cameron said fear was not an option. “If you think you’re going to be afraid, you probably shouldn’t be doing it,” he said. “I had apprehension, believe me, but I was too damn busy to think about it.” National Geographic recorded Cameron’s dive in 3-D and plans to release a documentary about the excursion later this year.
SEE COVE >> PG. 8
Check out a photo roundup of recent events in and around La Jolla. SEE PAGE 2
Read about an intriguing new event series, the
Ready for the San Diego County Fair? Find
Check out the music calendar
Get involved with a new bike trail by
out all about this year’s fair fun.
for a list of upcoming shows and local live entertainment.
attending workshops aimed to find the best inter-city route.
Ambassadorial Roundtable. SEE PAGE 4
SEE PAGE 9
SEE PAGE 11
SEE PAGE 19