The city of San Diego’s prohibition on people going down to the beach at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla is scheduled to end Saturday.
The ban went into effect Dec. 15 at the beginning of “pupping season” for the area’s harbor seals and ended Friday.
The City Council adopted the ban early last year after a rope barrier failed to discourage people from bothering the seals and their offspring.
City staff reported that a ranger posted to the Children’s Pool personally witnessed 30 occasions over a recent one-year period when seals were forced back into the water by humans — half during pupping season.
Supporters of the prohibition said there were actually many more instances when that happened.
While people will now be allowed onto the beach, the rope barrier will remain up to discourage them from venturing onto the sand.
The Children’s Pool was deeded to the city in 1931 to be a safe swimming spot for youngsters. Seals moved into the area in the 1990s and have become the focus of a dispute between animal-rights supporters and beach-access advocates.
The city’s prohibition was greenlighted for five years by the California Coastal Commission. Staff with the state agency reported that water quality is poor in the area because of the seals, so it is not a good place for swimming, anyway. Several nearby beaches with better water quality can be used, some within walking distance, the staff said.
Opponents of the ban contend the seal population is exploding and they are not a threatened or endangered species.
The public is still allowed access to the area’s breakwater for walking, fishing or viewing the seals.
— City News Service