After going back and forth several times in the past few weeks over whether a rope barrier would or should be installed at Children’s Pool beach to protect the resident harbor seals, a federal judge finally injected some common sense into the long-simmering debate March 10 by ordering the rope to be immediately erected. It will remain throughout pupping season, until the end of May.
It’s too bad it took the abandonment of two seal pups by their mothers to move the controversy into something resembling reality and compassion for the creatures.
It’s true that another judge has upheld a ruling on the restoration of the pool and beach there to its unpolluted, pre-seals condition. The city plans to dredge the beach to accomplish this, a move that will probably drive off the seals.
But the fact remains that the dredging has not yet been done. And in the meantime, the mother seals have been giving birth to their pups on the beach.
While the judge demonstrated common sense, many people do not. They forget the seals are not domesticated sea-dogs and get quite close to them. One of our photographers once witnessed a family trying to pose their toddler on top of a seal’s back for a photo!
I am neither condoning the aggressiveness of some of the seal advocates nor condemning the same aggressiveness by some of the divers and swimmers. But surely all would agree that clueless sightseers and helpless seal pups are not a good mix.