In Spring Casa Beach in La Jolla looks like this:
About 150 to 200 harbor seals use the beach as a resting place and rookery for their pups:
Once the pups are old enough to behave like proper teenagers (frolicking in the sea and having fun all day long), the older seals spend their afternoons, most likely, more like this:
Anything for a good rest before Spring comes around again and one has all flippers full raising the next generation.
All this can be watched from just a short distance away. Casa Beach is a small paradise for nature lovers big and small.
Unfortunately, this paradise is threatened. For years and years a battle has been going on between those who love this rare opportunity to catch a glimpse into the life of the harbor seals and those who consider them a menace, a pest, water polluters and squatters on a beach belonging to the humans. A short video clip can be watched here.
The latest news is that the City of San Diego and environmentalists have been overruled in their desire to keep Casa Beach for the seals. Now the case is supposed to go to Sacramento for a final decision.
I sincerely hope the seals will be allowed to stay. A 100 yard long stretch of beach is such a small price to pay for a year-round insight into the lives of these unique animals.
Oh, that’s a shame. I remember seeing them or maybe it was sea lions, up in northern CA, near Monterrey or someplace around there. It was such fun to watch. And there were ground squirrels that came right up to us where we stood to watch the sea lions. The little squirrels were practically tame, and such beggars.
Where is it that seals or sea lions took over a public dock, and people just decided to let them be? I think it was San Francisco.
Yes, that is a famous spot between Monterey and Hearst Castle, where one can see sea lions.
And yes again, the seals took over part of a marina down at Fisherman’s Wharf in SF, turning that spot even more into a tourist attraction.