Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Instrument; Flight Crew Sea
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 44; Flight Crew Total 1860; Flight Crew Type 662
Confusion
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy; Ground Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert
Airspace Structure; Human Factors; Procedure
Long Beach Harbor has a long history of sea plane operations that reach back to the dawn of Aviation.  One of the first commercial aviation operations was passenger service to Catalina Island from Long Beach and the iconic Spruce goose flew it's only Flight there.Late on a hazy but otherwise benign weather weekend afternoon; I departed the Long Beach Airport for a short flight to the Harbor. From a vantage point at the foot of the LA River; I could see conditions were conducive to seaplane operations. I contacted the tower to inform them of my intentions to conduct multiple seaplane operations within the southern boundary of their Class D airspace and received the usual acknowledgment with the catchphrase 'At your own risk.'The area chosen for those operations lay parallel to the shoreline and 150 feet south of the swimming buoys.  (I have conducted many seaplane operations in this same area over the last XX years; as have other seaplane pilots.)My first pass remained airborne at 50 feet above the surface to insure there were no hazards in the water.  The next three passes involved multiple touch and goes from the surface.  I saw no swimmers south of the buoys.I departed the area southbound; climbing to pattern altitude plus 500 feet before turning 180deg back to the airport.While taxing to parking; the tower informed me there had been a complaint that my operations were too close to swimmers.
Seaplane pilot reported Long Beach Tower advising pilot that their operation was too close to swimmers in the area.