Stretch of San Diego beach will be closed during seal pupping season as court challenges continue

For years, legal and public relations battles have been waged over access to Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla during seal pupping season. Seal defenders say humans harass the pups and their mothers; the other side laments policies that they say place seals’ welfare above human enjoyment.

After announcing early this week that the site would remain open during seal pupping season to comply with a judge’s order, an appellate court on Thursday granted San Diego officials discretion on whether to close the area while an ongoing legal battle plays out.

On Friday, the city announced that La Jolla Children’s Pool will be closed until further notice. Park rangers and lifeguards will be monitoring the area during the closure.

“If it’s temporarily going to be closed for this winter, it’s sad, but in the long run, we will prevail on the merits of our case,” Ken Hunrichs, president of Friends of the Children’s Pool, said before the city’s announcement.

The City Council voted in 2014 to restrict public access to the beach between Dec. 15 and May 15 in response to concerns that people were harassing the colony of seals. Residents protested the decision, and Friends of the Children’s Pool filed a lawsuit.

In May, an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled that closing the beach during much of winter and spring violates state and federal laws.

San Diego had appealed the latest ruling, asking an appellate court to allow the closure while the larger legal battle plays out. City officials are supported by animal-rights activists and the California Coastal Commission.

“The city is taking the proper steps to carry out the will of the City Council to close the beach,” said San Diego-based attorney Bryan Pease, whose seal-protection efforts have included the filing of a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to limit people’s access to the beach.

Seals started arriving at the beach en masse in the 1990s, making the waters there unsanitary for swimming and angering many residents who believe the city has unfairly prioritized wildlife protection over the site’s long history as a popular swimming spot.

The controversy has led to several lawsuits and violent skirmishes between opposing parties at the beach.

The Coastal Commission documented several dozen instances of humans harassing seals in 2015. The agency was most concerned with people who scared the seals during pupping season, prompting a “flushing” stampede of these animals toward the water. This can cause mothers to abandon pups that are too young to swim, or the pups can be trampled.

Children’s Pool was deeded to the city in 1931 and includes a 330-foot, crescent-shaped concrete sea wall that its donor meant as a way to create a protected beach and swim area for children.

joshua.smith@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @jemersmith

UPDATES:

1 p.m. Dec. 16: This article was updated to include the city’s announcement that La Jolla Children’s Pool will be closed until further notice.

This article was originally published at 4 a.m. Dec. 15.