LA JOLLA – A new five-point plan has been developed to prevent human harassment of sea lions at La Jolla Cove during their pupping season from mid-May to mid-September.
Sea lion births peak in June and July, with Point La Jolla, a nearby rookery, closed year-round to protect birthing mothers.
Nonprofit La Jolla Parks and Beaches, Inc.’s Cove Access Working Group, which includes a broad cross-section of Cove users, has come up with a comprehensive plan for protecting sea lions.
That plan includes: Improved signage, an educational script for tour bus operators about sea lion behavior/expectations, designated viewing area(s) above the beach, and rangers onsite plus needed ropes/cones, as well as some kind of technology deterrent, like a sonic system, to possibly relocate problematic wildlife.
“The working group itself is part of La Jolla Parks and Beaches, Inc., but it includes people outside of our group,” noted LJP&B spokesperson Chas. Dye. “We wanted to involve as many stakeholders as possible.”
Dye said the working group includes four LJP&B members as well as representation from La Jolla Village Merchants Association, Cove swimmers, and the Sierra Club Seal Society of San Diego, which employs volunteers to monitor the Cove daily during summer sea lion pupping season.
Dye noted the issue is especially relevant now with the Fourth of July. She pointed out that three sea lion pups died a year ago during this peak visitor time in La Jolla, possibly from exposure to sightseers during the week of the national holiday celebration.
Robyn Davidoff, chair of the Sierra Club Seal Society and a member of LJP&B’s Cove Access Working Group, said something more needed to be done to enhance the protection of birthing seal mothers.
“Sea lions have better scent than dogs,” she said. “If you touch a sea lion baby, it changes their scent. Sea lions identify each other by scent. When a returning mother comes back to feed her pup, if the pup’s scent has been disrupted, she will not feed her pup and will abandon it. Already, we’ve had eight sea lion babies born. Three have died and two have been abandoned and rescued by SeaWorld, all from human interventions.”
District 1 Councilmember and Council President Joe LaCava said he’s on board with efforts to separate sea lions from sightseers.
“It’s important to ensure unfettered public access to the beach at La Jolla Cove while keeping residents, visitors, and marine life safe,” he said. “We understand there is a proposal from the working group and look forward to hearing their ideas.”
Pointing out that none of the five points in the Cove Access Group’s plan are “perfect,” Dye said the group collectively concurs that these suggestions “will help mitigate the chaos down there.”
Of the group’s five protection plan proposals, Dye said, “We have to make sure they’re legally feasible, otherwise the city will not support us.”
The five points also have to prove to be effective. “We want to keep people off the beach to protect the sea lions,” said Dye. “We prefer they (visitors) hang out in a viewing area (to be created). We’d also like to have rangers with boots on the ground down there.”
Dye added that the next step in implementing the five-point sea lion protection plan is to present them to the city and ask, “How much support can we count on from you?”
Davidoff of the Sierra Club said a major issue in this whole plan to protect birthing sea lions is how to properly educate the public about the necessity for doing that.
“People see these animals like they’re our dogs, they seem friendly, so they think it’s OK to help themselves to getting close to them,” she said. “We can’t allow them to put themselves near the sea lions — especially not the newborn babies.”
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