San Diego residents ask city council member to find way to move wildlife from popular beach

SAN DIEGO (CN) — San Diego’s La Jolla neighborhood is known for its wealth, its ocean views, and wildlife that congregate on its beaches. But some of the area's residents say it's time to take control of one of its most famous beaches by moving the sea lions that congregate there elsewhere.

La Jolla Parks and Beaches, a nonprofit that advises the city of San Diego on park issues but has no enforcement or legislative powers, held a public meeting on the issue at a library in the neighborhood Monday. Bob Evans, president of the group, described the management of La Jolla Cove, a small beach where sea lions are known to congregate, rest and breed, as a “shit show.”

Attracted by how close the wildlife is to the city, tourists crowd the area, endangering the sea lions, Evans said.

Sometimes, the tourists come so close that the sea lions end up charging at them, according to videos posted to social media.

Those tense interactions between tourists and sea lions could lead the city to move to close the beach completely to humans, something that Evans, and other members of a 12-person advisory group are trying to prevent. On Monday, they sent a letter to San Diego City Council member Joe LaCava, whose district includes La Jolla, asking him to preserve the beach for human use and work to find somewhere else for the sea lions. 

“Since the 1800s, the La Jolla Cove has been an iconic city and worldwide destination for its environmental and ecological significance, and enjoyment and recreational use for everyone. But now, this recreational use of the Cove has become threatened, and wildlife and environment are similarly threatened,” the letter states.

“The city needs to take action to protect the pinnipeds and to preserve recreational use of La Jolla Cove,” the letter adds.

Last week, LaCava posted a statement on social media saying that he has a “bright line to ensure continued unfettered public access to the beach and waters of La Jolla Cove,” and that there are a number of “tools” that can be used, including enforcement by park rangers, better signage, and education.

“I want visitors to enjoy the unique opportunity of watching wildlife in an urban setting, and the public’s access to the La Jolla Cove beach and waters must always come first,” he added.

None of the nonprofit group members want to hurt the sea lions, Evans said, they just want them moved to either nearby bluffs, or larger beaches where other pinnipeds, like seals, also reside, and are protected. 

A little more than a decade ago, the cove used to be known for its diving and swimming. It’s only relatively recently that sea lions have taken over the beach, said many directors of the nonprofit group.

“This is our life, this is how we live,” said Melinda Merryweather, recalling her family’s extensive history of swimming and diving in the area before the sea lions showed up. 

People should appreciate the beach, not the sea lions, she said.

“We’re not so fond of the tourists,” she added. 

A dozen or so, predominately younger people, from around San Diego came to the meeting Monday to voice their displeasure with the group’s aim of displacing the sea lions, and what they saw as possible cruelty to the animals. 

A woman who asked to be identified only as Annie, said that the cove is the sea lions' area now. Comparing the area to protected manatee habitats in Florida, Annie said she would support removing tourists from the area rather than the animals. 

Evans said he was 95% in agreement with her. 

La Jolla is known for sea lions, and removing them would be something akin to gentrification, especially because marine biologists haven’t found a way to communicate with sea lions to convince them to move to another beach, said Kenneth Dunn.

“It’s an effort in futility,” Dunn said.

“Maybe,” Evans responded. “We’re on a wild new frontier here.”

Robyn Davidoff, the chair of the Sierra Club Seal Society, said the organization agrees the beach should stay open for use by people and that the city needs to come up with a plan to protect the sea lions, especially their baby pups, but trying to move the animals off the beach is not an appropriate solution. 

“We’re asking the city to provide some protection for these pups from the tourists,” Davidoff said. 

Visitors crowd around sea lions on the beach, step around them while trying to snap pictures and harass them, disturbing both their breeding season and their rest, Davidoff explained, endangering not only sea lion pups, but also the visitors themselves, who are at risk of being bitten or charged at by sea lions protecting their young. 

Tourists are “loving the pups to death,” Davidoff said. 

The Sierra Club Seal Society surveyed nine sea lion pups that were birthed in the cove. Three were found dead in the space of a few days after the Fourth of July holiday, and four others the society are presumed dead, Davidoff said, which she attributes largely to human interference and interaction. 

Around the cove, at Point La Jolla and Boomer Beach where larger groups of sea lions rest and breed, populations have remained stable, not overpopulated, because of local laws that restrict human access to the beach, Davidoff said. 

“The closure area is working quite well,” she said. “The pups just need to be protected from people.”

The city of San Diego could place cones or tape around the sea lion pups to protect them from tourists, Davidoff said. People should also stand 20 to 30 feet, or the length of a bus, away from the wildlife.