CALIFORNIA ALBUM : Storm Warnings Sound on Use of Offshore Rocks : There is a growing movement in La Jolla to protect the hangout for seals and other creatures against human intruders. Foes say the action is unnecessary.

Marko Zalokar peers angrily out to sea, cups his hands into a human bullhorn and blasts the trespassers tanning themselves at the La Jolla hangout known as Seal Rock.

“Hey, you! Get away from there!” he yells at the boys who lounge on the jut of offshore rocks the size of a small tugboat. “That place belongs to the seals! You’re bothering the seals! Go home! Scram! Did you hear me?”

The youths only laugh in his face. But some reactions to Zalokar’s scoldings have been stronger. Some sunbathers have yelled back threats, shaken their fists and gestured crudely.

Moments before, half a dozen glistening California harbor seals had lounged on the smooth rock formation located a short swim south of La Jolla Cove. They skittered off the rocks as soon as the snorkelers climbed aboard.

The human intrusion made Zalokar as angry as a protective mother guarding her pups.

“It’s scandalous! There’s a whole coastline of beach out there, and they have to try and populate the one place the seals try to call their own. And we’re all just standing here watching, letting it happen. Well, I’m not going to stand for it!”

Zalokar, 74, a retired molecular genetics researcher from UC San Diego, is part of a growing movement to persuade local officials to protect the squadrons of seals and sea lions--not to mention sea birds such as the pelicans and cormorants--that regularly flock to the rocks.

*

The skittish seals are less social than the sea lions and will bolt at the first sign of human presence, experts say. The larger sea lions will often sleep peacefully while swimmers and rock jumpers clamber all around them.

Some residents want San Diego to create a wildlife sanctuary for the sea creatures, making it illegal for swimmers or others to enter the area surrounding the rocks--which sit about 30 yards offshore, next to a popular swimming and diving area known as the Children’s Pool.

Other residents say there already are too many laws regulating public use of the ocean. The federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, as well as a city code, protect the sea animals from harassment or injury.

Leave the rocks alone, many locals say. Leave the seals to fend for themselves. And let the swimmers be.

“This whole sanctuary plan is an exercise in futility,” said Carl Lind, a longtime La Jolla resident and member of the local town council’s Parks and Beaches Committee. “La Jolla doesn’t need any more laws to protect those seals and sea lions. They’re doing well enough on their own.”

The sanctuary crowd claims the seals have been harassed by swimmers and tourists to the point where they may be driven permanently from the rocks. Witnesses have seen intruders throw rocks at the creatures as well as try to pet and feed them.

Barbara Bamberger, a former conservation coordinator for the Sierra Club who has helped spearhead the sanctuary idea, says the rocks may be the last mainland seal refuge in Southern California this side of Ventura County.

Bamberger and others have proposed that the city limit use of the area within a 50-foot perimeter of the rocks, but not including nearby sandy beaches.

In the meantime, they propose that scientists conduct a five-year study to determine the significance of the slippery rocks to the seal’s breeding and daily rest habits.

Advocates claim that the rocks have become a popular “haul-out” area for countless California harbor seals, which must rest for a significant part of the day. The rocks also might serve as a rookery, where seal pups are born and introduced into their new underwater environment, the sanctuary supporters say.

*

The sanctuary plan calls for a docent program where on-site volunteers would explain to the public the importance of preserving the rocks as a seal refuge. Signs warning against approaching the rocks or harassing the seals would be posted at key beach access points.

Similar sanctuaries have been established in Ventura County, backers of the plan say. In all, they claim, less than one acre of the beach would go toward saving a sea mammal habitat.

Like many issues in palm-studded La Jolla, the debate over the seals has polarized the community.

“There’s a possible overreaction going on here,” said Sandra Brokaw, a member of the La Jolla town council. “La Jolla is known as a mecca for swimmers and scuba divers and snorkelers, both locals and tourists alike.

“Well, what kind of message are we sending out if we declare a prime area of shoreline off limits to the very people we’re trying to attract? I think education is the key. I mean, most people go to those rocks to rest, not scare off the seals. If we let people know the importance of the rocks, maybe the problem would solve itself.”

Not so, says former airline pilot Dave Odell, a fellow La Jollan.

Odell says he has seen youths throw rocks at the seals from just a few feet away. Recently, he said, two young fishermen offering the seals catches on the end of harpoons were cited by Fish and Game officials on the scene.

From his air-conditioned office overlooking the La Jolla shore, Sgt. John Liddle of the San Diego city lifeguard unit said that, although guards could ticket people for harassing the seals, the call is often difficult to make.

And, frankly, he added, there aren’t enough guards to go around.

“On slow days at low tide, we often chase kids off who go there to taunt the seals,” he said. “But it’s definitely a judgment call. And our first priority is to protect people, not seals.”