Children’s Pool in La Jolla closed for pupping season – NBC 7 San Diego
The annual closure of the Children's Pool for harbor seal pupping season started Friday. The beach area will remain closed through May 15, 2024.
The walkway atop the seawall is also closed, but that's been the case since January when high surf beat on the seawall's railings.
The Children's Pool was opened in 1932 after Ellen Browning Scripps paid for a seawall to be built so that inexperienced swimmers could enjoy the beach. Seals started to use the relatively calm shore to rear their pups in the 1990s.
The city started closing the beach in 2014 after environmentalists complained that people were disturbing the marine mammals. The California Coastal Commission issued a permit allowing the beach to close to protect the seals.
A group advocating for beach access called Friends of the Children's Pool sued the city arguing that the closure violated the California Coastal Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A lower court sided with the group but the issue was resolved in the city's favor in 2018 when an appeals court reversed the decision, allowing the city to close the beach for 5 1/2 months each year.
