Children’s Pool beach in La Jolla reopens as legal battle over seals continues

Reporting from San Diego —  The controversial beach in La Jolla known as Children’s Pool has reopened this week after being closed since December for harbor seal pupping season.

A decades-long disagreement over how to prioritize use of the site has generated legal battles, as well as some violent encounters, between opposing parties.

Children’s Pool beach was created using a 330-foot, crescent-shaped concrete seawall. The area was deeded to the city by philanthropist Ellen Browning Scripps in 1931, with the express wish that it remain available as a swimming area for children.

In the 1990s, harbor seals began gathering there and establishing a rookery. Their waste on the beach and in the surrounding waters made it unsanitary for swimming — and set off what has become an intractable conflict between residents who believe people should get top priority for using the beach and others who say wildlife protection laws give precedence to the seals.

Over the years, various groups have proposed a range of potential solutions. Those have included barring humans from accessing the beach year-round (visitors would only be allowed to stand on the seawall and look down at the beach), stringing a rope barrier on the beach to keep people away from the seals, and using dogs and bullhorns to disperse the seal colony.

The dispute hasn’t ended despite the state Legislature changing the Scripps agreement to give the city of San Diego greater latitude in managing the site.

It’s a federal violation to harass or disturb the marine mammals, so San Diego lifeguards and park rangers monitor the area for violators. In response to concerns that people were bothering the seals — and causing some mothers to abandon their pups — the City Council voted in 2014 to shutter Children’s Pool each Dec. 15 to May 15, which is pupping season. For the rest of the year, there’s a thin rope separating the seals from areas where visitors can move around on the beach.

These measures have frustrated some residents, who contend the city is unfairly prioritizing wildlife protection over the site’s long history as a popular swimming spot.

After years of lawsuits brought by various parties, a group called Friends of the Children’s Pool scored a legal victory in 2015 when an Orange County Superior Court judge ruled that closing the beach during much of winter and spring violated state and federal laws.

The city, with the support of animal-rights activists, appealed the ruling and a three-judge panel has allowed the annual pupping-season beach closure to continue while the legal fight plays out. A decision in the case is expected later this year.

joshua. smith@sduniontribune.com

Smith writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune