{"id":74262,"date":"2023-04-19T17:58:54","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T17:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/04\/19\/popular-san-diego-web-cameras-removed-at-navys-request\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:16:14","slug":"popular-san-diego-web-cameras-removed-at-navys-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2023\/04\/19\/popular-san-diego-web-cameras-removed-at-navys-request\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular San Diego web cameras removed at Navy\u2019s request"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A group that runs an array of San Diego-based web cameras that capture Navy ships coming and going is calling foul after the National Parks Service removed two cameras overlooking San Diego Bay this month at the Navy\u2019s request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Navy officials framed the recent cam removal as a matter of force protection, Barry Bahrami, a 52-year-old San Diego local who runs the volunteer San Diego Web Cam<\/a> group, alleges that the cameras were removed from Cabrillo National Monument after they captured an embarrassing near-collision<\/a> of two Navy ships in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That close call between the guided-missile destroyer Momsen and the dock landing ship Harpers Ferry came to be known as the \u201cwarship chicken\u201d incident after San Diego Web Cam footage of the encounter went viral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parks service confirmed Friday that it had removed the two cameras at Cabrillo after the Naval Criminal Investigative Service requested they be removed \u201cdue to security concerns.\u201d Bahrami said he was notified of the removal on April 11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cabrillo sits just south of Naval Base Point Loma, an installation that hosts Navy submarines and other assets. The site also sits right across the water from Naval Station North Island and the island of Coronado, the West Coast home of the Navy SEALs.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Before the parks service removed the cameras, they regularly broadcast footage of ships coming and going, garnering six million views online in the past year alone, according to Bahrami.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cameras also provide a civil service, he said, allowing Navy families to watch their loved ones departing and arriving while providing cool footage for ship enthusiasts of all stripes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NCIS spokesman Jeff Houston said in an email that the request to have NPS remove the Cabrillo cameras \u201cwas not related to the Harpers Ferry\/Momsen incident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNCIS verbally expressed force protection concerns recently related to the private webcams and YouTube channel, which provided 24-hour webcam monitoring of vessels and equities located aboard Naval Air Station North Island, including aircraft hangers\/flight lines, Naval Base Point Loma submarine assets, and the tracking of military personnel aboard Naval Base Coronado,\u201d Houston said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to Bahrami, the Navy\u2019s push to remove the cameras didn\u2019t make sense, given all the Cabrillo tourists and others in the area who can just as easily photograph and video Navy ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bahrami pointed out that a visitor to Cabrillo can plop a quarter into stationary binoculars and take a look. \u201cThey\u2019ll sell you a zoomed-in view of the sub base,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Houston did not answer Navy Times\u2019 questions about why the threat posed by the cameras is any greater than all the other ways that area Navy bases can be recorded or photographed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bahrami said his club, which runs the cameras off donations, always keeps security at the forefront and does not broadcast footage of ships arriving and departing in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said group members always ensured the Cabrillo feeds did not show any portion of the Point Loma base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnyone in a condo or a or a house around the bay \u2026 or anyone at Cabrillo has a view\u201d of the Point Loma base and can record, Bahrami said. \u201cAnyone standing at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery can look down at this sub base.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other web cams capture ships coming and going from fleet concentrations elsewhere in the states, and Bahrami said he feels his group\u2019s cams are being targeted because of the warship chicken incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy the San Diego Web Cam?\u201d he asked. \u201cSomebody got a little embarrassed maybe?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t