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Pinniped Predicament
No need for emotion on this issue. If the Children's Pool beach is closed to people, then a private group of citizens will start a harassment program against the seals in the ocean surrounding the Children's Pool. There are enough harassment devices such as seal bombs that can be used underwater to scare off the seals. They can be harassed from the area so there will be no seals left to use the Children's Pool beach and, believe me, the seals will not want to come back. BYE BYE SEALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!— March 13, 2010 10:23 a.m.
Victorious Seals
From comments made in the article, it appears that the Seal Watch volunteer interviewed has no idea what he is talking about. He blames the man on the beach with the umbrella for causing the mother seals to abandon their pups. Yet according to other people that I know that watch the seals all the time, no normal (non-premature) seal pups have been born yet this year. Only premature births have taken place and these are normal with a number being expected every year. Therefore, how could the man on the beach be responsible for maternal harbor seals abandoning normally (non-premature) pups when absolutely no normal pup births have taken place this year. The following is from a marine mammal researcher who got his Ph.D. in marine biology with a specialty in the study of marine mammals from the University of California. "Premature births in Pacific harbor seal colonies are normal every pupping season and up to 50% of the total maternal seal pregnancies may end up as premature births. Reasons for premature birth in Pacific harbor seals may happen for a variety of reasons. It is absurd to indicate that the person which uses the beach this time of year is responsible for premature births or maternal seals abadoning their pups. It would be impossible to prove this."— January 5, 2010 2:39 p.m.
Victorious Seals
The pupping season rope is a guideline rope only, the beach is not closed being open to the public year round. The Children's Pool is a public beach and, what the public does on this beach, is not under any legal scrutiny from any private group. The group Seal Watch has one purpose and that is to collect as much money from the public as possible using the seals at the Children's Pool. Seal Watch is environmental fraud as their seal protection program is a fraud with one purpose which is to ask the public for financial contributions. NOAA is responsible for protecting the seals at the Children's Pool, not Seal Watch which continues to make money exploiting the seals at the Children's Pool. Anyone who really supports the seals taking over this area would want the seawall removed so the coastline can be returned to its natural state before the seawall was built. Before the seawall was built, only the seals used the area as the beach did not exist being created by the seawall. Seal Watch wants the seawall to remain so they can use the beach as a seal show to entertain the public and ask them for money. Seal Watch does not care about the seals in any way except financial gain. On another note, ecotours in La Jolla plan to use the seal pupping season for their own financial gain. The SWIM WITH THE NEW SEAL PUP swim tours will originate at Shell Beach and these groups will swim out into the ocean area just outside the Children's Pool so swimmers can interact in the water with the new seal pups and the mother seals. This begins some time in January. There is also a Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) monitoring program planned for the seal colony in the ocean just outside the Children's Pool. This program begins in January and will continue year round. A diver recently reported seeing a large great white shark near the kelp forest just west of the Children's Pool. The ROV program will monitor seals and look for great white sharks in the ocean area adjacent to the Children's Pool.— January 4, 2010 9:28 a.m.