Debate over public access at La Jolla Cove and the mistreatment of its resident sea lions boiled over when dozens of wildlife advocates and swimmers packed into a Sept. 10 La Jolla Town Council meeting to argue their differing visions for the Cove.
By the time the meeting began, 145 people had packed into a conference room at the La Valencia Hotel, far exceeding the 42 chairs that had been put out. Staff brought in more chairs, but many were still left standing.
The pro-closure crowd included Barrett Pall, a social media personality turned wildlife advocate who launched a pro-closure Change.org campaign in August. Pall called upon his supporters to attend the meeting and make their views known.
Pall’s petition surpassed 48,000 signatures before the meeting began.
“I want to thank you all for being here tonight,” town council president Mary Soriano said, after a 10-minute delay, addressing the crowded conference room with an echoing karaoke microphone and speaker.
Soriano laid out the ground rules: “Maintain respect for each other and orderly conduct.” She warned that San Diego police would escort out anyone who violated this rule.
As the crowd inside the hotel meeting room quieted down, chatter online grew contentious.
Within seconds of joining, participants were commenting “CLOSE THE COVE!!!!” and “PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE!!!!”
Others pushed back, arguing advocates were going too far.
One commenter compared closing the Cove to “shutting down the freeway because there are drunk drivers,” a reference to the viral video of 18-year-old La Jolla resident Tyler Muehl kicking a sea lion at Point La Jolla on July 22. The July incident turned ongoing wildlife harassment into a hot-button issue. Mention NOAA and guilty plea. Another commenter wondered whether advocates would close Crystal Pier to protect pigeons.
Some suggested that the sea lions could swim away from visitors. Advocates pointed out that, unlike pigeons, sea lions cannot simply fly away from human harassment. They argued that leaving the Cove isn’t an option for the sea lions because it is their home.
The meeting quickly devolved from the topic at hand.
Opponents questioned Pall’s financial ties to Change.org, where he serves as an ambassador. Supporters defended him, writing, “Change.org approached and offered to sponsor Barrett’s grassroots activism. Not the other way around. Activists don’t need to work for free and alone to be right in their values.”
Change.org says ambassadors earn $0.30 to $0.50 per signature, paid monthly as their petitions grow. Pall’s petition is estimated to earn $22,400 over its lifetime after passing 56,000 signatures on Sept. 13, though it continues to grow. Ambassadors also receive advanced payment based on audience size — Pall claims to reach over 2.3 million people across his social media platforms.
Pall declined to comment on the opposition’s payment concerns to Times of San Diego.
Those opposed to closing the Cove also challenged the statistics advocates used to support the proposal, most notably the Seal Society’s claim that 40% of sea lion pups have died this year at the La Jolla rookery.
Some commenters claimed the wildlife advocacy group has since retracted the pup mortality figure.
This is not the case, according to Robyn Davidoff, chair of Seal Society. Without official statistics from the agencies responsible for managing the Cove, Davidoff argued the Seal Society’s citizen science is the best measure available.
But the figure has faced public scrutiny. On the morning of the town council meeting, Scripps Institution of Oceanography graduate Zach Cabading argued people should “follow sea lion science, not social media” in a guest commentary. Cabading claims preliminary counts do not support a 40% mortality rate or establish that human harassment caused their deaths.
“I only just heard about this ‘rumor’ that someone said that the Sierra Club Seal Society is retracting their statement…This is not true,” Davidoff told Times of San Diego the day after the town hall.
“[Cabading] believes all research must be peer-reviewed and published. That just isn’t possible and would take years and funding,” Davidoff wrote.
“No entity is studying this sea lion population even though we have reached out to Scripps and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for years,” Davidoff wrote. “Our data is ‘Citizen Science’ backed by photos to document the pup deaths. We then discussed that pup mortality is much higher in the Cove than in the closed area around the corner at Point La Jolla.”
“The key point isn’t the exact mortality numbers but the fact that there is uncontrolled harassment of sea lions (pups and adults) in the La Jolla Cove daily,” Davidoff wrote.
The dispute over the numbers reflected a larger divide throughout the town council meeting: whether to keep people out of the Cove or force the city to better enforce protections agreed to in June.
Earlier in the day on Sept. 10, the issue came before the California Coastal Commission. San Diego commissioner Matt O’Malley reiterated his support for a partial closure.
O’Malley said swimmers should retain access to the water, but most visitors should be restricted to watching sea lions from above. Commission Vice Chair Dr. Caryl Hart recommended a sign-in system to record each person who enters the Cove.
“[The Cove] has always been cherished by the folks of San Diego, including myself,” O’Malley said. “Because the city has not been able to implement – for various reasons – the protocol it came up with, you’re seeing the abuse of the wildlife in that area, constantly.”
Council President LaCava’s representative at the meeting, Brian Elliot, said the discussion was moving towards the question of what access at the Cove should look like.
La Jolla Parks and Beaches, a local nonprofit and recognized advocate for La Jolla’s beaches, asked the city to explore opinions to limit access to those using the water, Elliot said, while
LaCava’s office has sought out other community groups for feedback.
Rather than calling for closure, the Seal Society is instead calling on the city to enforce the management plan it approved in June.
At the Coastal Commission meeting on Sept. 10, Seal Society representatives laid out the measures the city already approved to protect sea lions during pupping season. The plan called for rangers to patrol the beach, signs to warn visitors away from wildlife and cones to keep people away from pups.
Instead, the group said, rangers have largely remained at the top of the stairs, signs have been poorly positioned and barriers are inconsistently enforced. The Seal Society has asked the city to fully implement the plan before limiting access to the Cove.
Back at the La Jolla Town Council meeting, public comment grew increasingly heated as advocates and swimmers took turns arguing their vision for the Cove.
Wildlife advocates argued that harassment and inadequate enforcement require stronger restrictions, while swimmers and other opponents questioned the evidence behind the pup mortality statistic, pointing to El Niño as the cause.
The debate spilled into personal accusations and interruptions, with the council struggling to maintain decorum. The La Jolla Town Council’s next step is to bring together the city and other agencies responsible for managing the Cove to discuss what public access should look like. A date for this meeting has not yet been determined.
“We have a few more minutes to do some karaoke, so if everybody wants to release with Closing La Jolla Cove: Wildlife advocates face off with swimmers, Town Council and Coastal Commission weigh ‘What access looks like’some of your favorite songs,” Soriano added, adjourning the meeting at 8:16 p.m. “You don’t have to be good, and we already have karaoke mics.”
