San Diego City Council’s decision to close La Jolla’s Children’s Pool as of Dec. 15, 2014 has actually resulted in more harbor seal and sea lion deaths in a season with a record number of seals starving, according to volunteers from the privately funded Seal Conservancy. “It is unlawful,” the statute reads, “for any person to be upon or to cause any person to be upon the beach of the La Jolla Children’s Pool, starting from the lower stairs to the beach beginning with the second landing, from Dec. 15 to May 15.” The beach closure has thus prevented rescue agencies from providing care for the seals amid an unnatural concentration of seals. The law was enacted to keep humans out of the area during the seals’ pupping season. In a recent case, SeaWorld San Diego officials reportedly claimed they were prevented by law from rescuing an abandoned seal pup at Children’s Pool. Instead of accessing the beach as in previous years, rescuers might need to swim or boat into the Children’s Pool to check on the health of seals or delay assistance by being forced to wait and find them on adjacent beaches. Rescue scenarios also subject potential rescuers to additional dangers the Children’s Pool breakwater was intended to prevent. An increasing number of pups are reportedly being abandoned as their mothers seek out shifting food sources. The ban is scheduled to last through May of 2019. In a related item from La Jolla Patch.com, SeaWorld returned a dozen rescued California sea lions and a fur seal to the ocean on March 13. Almost three months into 2015, the park’s rescue team has recorded 482 seal and sea lion rescues — the most in its 51-year history. The marine mammals spent weeks to several months in the park’s Animal Rescue Center. The Guadalupe fur seal spent four months in treatment after it was found lethargic and dehydrated off the Camp Pendleton coastline in November. The seal was outfitted with a satellite transmitter before its release that is expected to give researchers an idea of where members of the threatened species travel and how they forage for food, according to SeaWorld. The transmitter likely will dislodge when the seal molts. The 12 California sea lions were set free after up to seven months at the park, officials said. SeaWorld said the park was committed to helping the unprecedented number of ill and emaciated animals by scheduling extra rescue personnel, suspending its sea lion and otter show along with its Beluga Interaction Program, and constructing two temporary holding tanks. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climatologist Nate Mantua told website SFGate ocean temperatures of 2 to 5 degrees higher than average caused the unprecedented number of starving, sick and dead marine mammals washing ashore. That increase makes it harder for mothers to find food for their pups because fish seals and sea lions eat are migrating north, he said.
