As many as one hundred Southern California conservationists and animal rights activists are expected to stage a protest march on Saturday, May 7, to demand adequate protections for a seal colony in La Jolla, California's Casa Cove. Their march through downtown La Jolla, CA, will begin at the corner of Girard Ave. & Prospect St. in La Jolla and end with a rally above the beach at Casa Cove. (map)
Casa Cove, also known as "baby beach" by locals, has served as a rookery for harbor seals since the construction of an artificial sea wall by the Scripps family in the 1930s. Carly Slawson, a volunteer with APRL's SealWatch, says:
"Due to development and human intrusions on the coast the nearest established rookeries for harbor seals are roughly 100 miles to the north and south of Casa Cove thus limiting the harbor seal's ability to breed, nurse, and raise their young."
"Must we humans be so selfish that we would deny the seals a small spot on the coast they can call their own. Those who want the seals removed so children can have the beach have certainly not asked the children what they want. Most children would prefer to see seals living happy on a beach than to see them removed. The people who are victimizing these seals are both anti-nature and anti-children. They have their own agenda of greed and prejudice," says Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and star of the hit TV show Whale Wars.
"Despite federally mandated protections for these seals, periods of shared use of the beaches at Casa Cove have led to situations where seals were harassed or chased away by people," says Dorota Valli of the Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) of San Diego's SealWatch.
The activists are an umbrella group of organizations including the Animal Protection and Rescue League of San Diego, Seal Watch San Diego, La Jolla Friends of the Seals, and Orange County People for Animals, who are collectively fighting to establish protection, and an eventual sanctuary, for the La Jolla seals.
The activists have implemented a two-tiered approach of nonviolent direct action protests, like the one they have planed for Saturday, as well as a plan of civil action in the La Jolla courts. The activists have recently petitioned the courts for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in hopes the rope barring access to Casa Cove will not be lifted and that the Baby Beach rookery will not be opened to beach goers. The case is being revisited in La Jolla court on May 13th, 2011.
For details about this weekends march as well as additional information on the La Jolla seals visit The San Diego Seal Watch website
Follow Andy Stepanian on Twitter: www.twitter.com/sparrowmedia
Who exactly are you referring to when you say "San Diegans?" With the hundreds of people we passed yesterday (business owners included) we may have gotten four to five negative responses. Which leads me to believe you're really only taking you and your pro-access buddies opinions into consideration. This doesn't come as a surprise at all because had this not been the case, the seals would have a safe place to call home by now.
"Andy Stepanian
There has been a lot of angry comments left on my recent article on The Huffington Post by people who dont want the seals in La Jolla to have their own beach. If you get a chance please leave comments in response to them. If you are in southern california there is still time to get the action! "
I'm not angry Andy. I just want the Huffington Post readers and you to know the facts. If you want to see angry people come down to the Children's Pool sometime and watch the animal rights crowd incite hatred and violence. There's a big difference between researching and actual experience.
You dont need to call for backup Andy. I'm willing to calmly discuss the situation with you.
I just went by the rally and saw about 20 people there...perhaps the others couldn't find "baby beach" on the map or their GPS.
To clarify, the rally yesterday saw attendance of over 60 people. It started at 10am so your perspective at 2pm was a little late. Don't worry we found the beach and witnessed "shared use" and the flushing of the seals just fine.
Yes, sometimes seals flush into the water but it's not the end of the world. They go about their usual activities like eating, sleeping (yes seals can nap in the water) and frolicking with other seals and divers. They're not going to die or suffer if they flush into the water and they all come back later. If you would have stayed until dusk you would have seen them all come back and continue their usual activity of sleeping and pooping.
Just the facts Ma'am....
1) The name of the cove is Children's Pool. Animal Rights activists like to call it Casa because they don't want to remind the public that this man made cove was built by Ellen Scripps specifically for children.
2) the rookery came about not in 1931 when the Children's Pool was built, but in the late 90's after Sea World began to drop off rehabilitated seals from other areas. The numbers jumped from about 20 seals to 150 during the time that Sea World dropped them off.
3) There is a rookery in Carpentaria to the north but there is also one about 10 miles south in Point Loma. The number of seals at this location is about 60+.
4) Today the number of seals in or around the Children's Pool is about 300+ which is unfortunate because this group is right next to an ecological reserve and marine reserve specifically set up to protect fish, mollusks and crustaceans....the favorite foods of seals.
Do the math. Seals eat 10lbs+ of food each day...x 300 = 3000lbs each day or 90,000 lbs each month. This has devastated the local nearshore marine life and is clearly not environmentally or ecologically sound.
1.) Locals, both animal activists and non activists use the name baby beach. When researching the story the only people who used the term "children's cove" were a handful of shared-use advocates.
2.) Yes, disproportionate amounts of fish are consumed where colonies congregate, however this is not a phenomena that ought to be blamed on the seals, their populations carrying capacity is sound, rather it is a reflection of a lack of favorable pockets of coastline for them to call their own. When forced out of one region because of development or crowds of beach goers when seals finally congregate in a place they find suitable their numbers are inevitably larger. This in many ways is a reflection of human development.
3.) Ultimately these seals deserve a place to call their own, and that is something that most anthropocentric or utilitarian minded folks fail to embrace. I personally believe that animals are worthy of rights and the seals are as worthy of a right to exist inasmuch as we all are.
1) It's the Children's Pool not the "children's cove". I have lived down the street from the Children's Pool for 30 years and I've never heard anybody call it "baby beach"
2)Encouraging the exponential growth of a seal population next to a marine and ecological reserve is somewhat short sighted and counter productive. I'm sure the few remaining fish, mollusks and crustaceans would agree if they could talk. Alas, the crabs and sea slugs just dont have that "cute factor" that seals do.
I like wolves and rabbits but I wouldn't artificially boost the population of wolves next to a rabbit reserve...
3) This isn't about animal rights. It's about activists screwing up the ecological balance of the La Jolla reserve and harming the environment for other animals and people while obsessing over one particular species.
Here's a link to the image that took me all of 7 seconds "research" to find. http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://spearboard.com/attachment.php%3Fattachmentid%3D95771%26stc%3D1%26d%3D1235021086&imgrefurl=http://spearboard.com/showthread.php%3Ft%3D78435%26page%3D2&usg=__OXgyoQrmpXI6LqgStlrW_n8jZrY=&h=480&w=640&sz=32&hl=en&start=0&sig2=W1LmHVc0Koge4eVchOYyTQ&zoom=1&tbnid=KXE3L-4d6F4ZHM:&tbnh=159&tbnw=212&ei=A0_FTd77No7SsAOMv-mlAQ&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dla%2Bjolla%2Bchildrens%2Bpool%2Bplaque%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DN%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1280%26bih%3D680%26tbm%3Disch0%2C291&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=990&vpy=194&dur=347&hovh=167&hovw=222&tx=196&ty=65&page=1&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:14,s:0&biw=1280&bih=680
It has ALWAYS been THE CHILDREN'S POOL. Not "baby beach", nor "casa cove". THE CHILDREN'S POOL is the name of this man made beach that is designed BY humans, made BY humans, FOR humans.
How about you try and actually do your research next time before you lie to the public more? mmmmmkaaayy?
-The sea wall was built in 1931 replacing the natural coastline in the area that was known as Seal Rock. The historic name is telling of the fact that the seals have been around for some time.
-The rookery in Capenteria (check your spelling) that you refer to is over 70 miles to the north. In recent weeks "shared use" advocates have been making the drive up to harass and flush the seals off of that beach also. As far as your Point Loma reference, the seals that congregate there are of a different specie than the La Jolla colony.
- Are you saying that you don't eat fish, mollusks, and crustaceans as well as work to protect marine wildlife? Unless you do you have no ground to stand on with the argument that the seals "overfish" the area. Even with population imbalances (that are due to human encroachment) commercial fishing and chemical runoff from humans do more harm than any silly math that you can conjure in relation to natural marine predators. Nice try Tony.
- Seal Rock is about 100 yards NW of the Children's Pool which did not replace a seal rookery. Before 1931 there was a small beach that was generally underwater at high tide similar to the adjacent beaches Shell Beach, Casa (just behind Children's Pool) and Boomer's. Hardly rookery material....
- When Cabrillo entered San Diego in 1542 he mentioned that Native Americans were wearing seal coats and believe it or not bears, coyotes etc. roamed the shores in those days so the seal population never survived on a comfy man made beach or somewhere easily accessible...We still to this day have coyotes in the canyons that snag dogs and cats when they can.
- Yes Seals have always been around on the California coast, but never have activists encouraged and exploited a population of seals to the detriment of other sea life and the community.
- The seals in Point Loma are harbor seals and so are the seals at the Children's Pool. Perhaps you, like many others, that are not familiar with marine mammals confuse seals with sea lions ?
- Commercial fishing and runoff are not a factor in the diminishing sea life within the La Jolla reserve and Children's Pool area. Anyone that actually spends a lot of time in and on the water knows better than that...
Tim, you would have a lot more credibility if you stopped making up these outrageous lies about people who simply want to use an open public beach without being harassed by animal extremists.
Tim, do you think it is acceptable for your animal activist friends to scream obscenities at disabled people on the beach? How about to threaten to file false police reports, vandalize vehicles of beach goers, spit on children, throw rocks, or steal personal belongings of, threaten and intimidate beach goers? How about breaking multiple city and federal laws? Those are all actions the animal activists have been taking down there, and things none of the shared use advocates have done.
Tim, why do you support people who break the law and harass innocent beach goers who just want to peacefully coexist with the seals?