Guide Rope Up at Children’s Pool

It is officially harbor seal pupping season. A controversial rope barrier was installed at in La Jolla on Thursday morning. The rope serves as a suggested distance to view seals from, and just how long the barrier will remain up is still undetermined.

The beach area was gifted to the city of San Diego in 1931 as a safe beach swimming area for kids, but was taken over by seals, creating a legal fight between animal rights activists and beach-access activists.

One side wants the rope permanently in place and the other doesn’t want a barrier at all.   

In 2010, the San Diego City Council voted for a year-round rope, but Mayor Jerry Sanders ordered it to be in place only during pupping season.

Ken Hunrich, of the Friends of the Children’s Pool, said the three-foot opening in the barrier is difficult to see for people approaching the beach. New signs put up by the city emphasize that beachgoers should stay away from the seals.

Currently the rope will remain up through the end of pupping season on May 15, but Bryan Pease, a lawyer representing two animal rights groups, wants the barrier to be made permanent.

The Coastal Commission is expected to consider the issue at its March meetings in Santa Cruz, Pease said.

Pease, attorney for the Animal Protection and Rescue League, held a press conference Thursday morning at the Children’s Pool.

Pease said the rope should stay up year-round because the seals use the beach year-round.

“The majority of citizens in San Diego … as well as the City Council, which took a vote a couple years ago, want this beach to be closed for the pupping season. It is a very small beach. It is only 130 feet long out of 70 miles of coastline and it is the only mainline harbor seal rookery in Southern California south of Carpinteria, so it is a very important site for these marine mammals to come up, rest, give birth and nurse their young.”

-City News Service contributed to this report.