Half the sea lion pups born this season at La Jolla Cove have died, according to the Sierra Club Seal Society, compared with 10% in the nearby area closed to visitors.
The idea of the publicly accessible beach is almost sacred in California. And for good reason-plenty of rich people have tried to keep the beaches for themselves. I wouldn’t put it past them to import some seals and use them as an excuse to close off the shoreline.
# Closures become necessary if people ignore the rules....
.
There's always a few idiots that gotta fuck things up for everyone.
Attention-Mongers performing for followers doesn't help, either. Those are the same type of people that go to Yellowstone, so they can film themselves petting a bison.
Should be easy enough to ID the harasser in the first photo of the linked SF GATE article. If you're gonna break the law at the beach, be sure to wear shorts that show off your calf tattoo. And in the second photo...is that Larry David taunting a sea lion? (Allegedly?)
Send those people up to argue with the elephant seals.
Or some leopard seals!
The idea of the publicly accessible beach is almost sacred in California. And for good reason-plenty of rich people have tried to keep the beaches for themselves. I wouldn’t put it past them to import some seals and use them as an excuse to close off the shoreline.
# Closures become necessary if people ignore the rules....
.
There's always a few idiots that gotta fuck things up for everyone.
Attention-Mongers performing for followers doesn't help, either. Those are the same type of people that go to Yellowstone, so they can film themselves petting a bison.
Should be easy enough to ID the harasser in the first photo of the linked SF GATE article. If you're gonna break the law at the beach, be sure to wear shorts that show off your calf tattoo. And in the second photo...is that Larry David taunting a sea lion? (Allegedly?)
But seriously, the linked boingBoing article notes that the avian flu H5N1 had jumped species to marine mammals by February 2026. https://boingboing.net/2026/02/27/scientists-move-fast-as-h5n1-reaches-northern-california-elephant-seals.html