If you're a local La Jolla resident, or if you've visited San Diego, you most likely know of one of the most popular tourist attractions: La Jolla Cove. Recently after I was swimming one day, I overheard a woman complaining to her husband that she can no longer go on her favorite beach because there is an abnormal amount of sea lions now living there. She seemed quite angry at the fact that the sea lions had "taken over" the beach.
A couple months ago, a man yelled at me because I asked him not to get to close to the sea lions because they're territorial in nature and protect their young pups. He tried to take multiple "selfies" with them but seemingly he failed to listen to me and told me it was strictly none of my business what he does with the animals.
The number of sea lions that have made La Jolla cove their habitat has exponentially increased recently. Often I feel as if people forget that sea lions are wild animals. Yes, La Jolla Cove is an area of recreation with frequent snorkelers, swimmers, and divers. It is a place of attraction for tourists and people who visit the city. I loved kayaking in La Jolla Cove myself and it was a wonderful experience. But La Jolla Cove is not our primary home. After reading a recent article from the San Diego Reader, I concluded that most of the problems the city sees with the sea lions is that they have created a dirty environment and that it begins to smell quite often, driving tourists away from the site.
From a biologist's perspective, what are we supposed to do with these animals that are living in their natural environment? Are we supposed to place these sea lions in aquariums or places like SeaWorld? No, because people claim it's just inhumane to keep animals in a place that isn't their natural habitat, right? I see two sides to this debate that end up in a constant circle of arguments about not allowing animals to be in their natural habitat. We don't like when they're in a tank for entertainment but now we don't like when they're in the habitat they have claimed. We can't just simply ask them to pack up their bags and move to a new location.
The arguments started to pile up and become more and more ridiculous: we should blame sea lions for making the water quality dirty, they are going to start hurting more humans, it's causing sickness, etc. If there needs to be a way to contain some of the smell in a humane and sanitary way, it should be done for the good of the animals. But blaming the sea lions for water quality and making their nature out to be dangerous? Sea lions are territorial creatures and as wild animals they will become a threat if you cause them any harm to their family or the habitat they live in. California's water quality can't be blamed on the sea lions because of their waste when most comes from human pollution itself. Are we asking them not to poop? A lot of the chemicals entering the ocean come from us: hair products, sun tan lotions, and the list goes on.
If human interaction is becoming an issue, maybe it is time we limit the amount of contact with La Jolla cove. Yes, it's a beautiful place, but we can't ask the marine life to move just because it's hard for us swim in the cove or visit the beaches. Someone proposed in the San Diego Reader article that we relocate the animals. Yes, because the right thing to do is to take every sea lion and relocate them somewhere where they aren't bothering us anymore. The San Diego Reader claimed the "seal-huggers" are coming out to rescue the sea lions. We're not seal-huggers, we're people who care about the environment and the marine mammals that live there because it's their home, not ours. Marine mammals' primary habitat is the ocean and when we enter their habitat we should be aware of that we are already viewed as a threat to these animals- and at the end of the day, it's their home, not ours.
We share our planet with marine life. The ocean is not our primary home. When we enter the ocean we should know the risks that we are taking when we do so. The most important concept to take away from this is that swimming and interacting with marine life in the ocean is not a right, it is a privilege. It's their world too, and that isn't a statement coming from a "seal-hugger". It's a statement from a student studying marine habitats who cares about the sustainability of our future environments.
