Monday, July 17, 2006 | A panel of five marine mammalogy researchers from California made a technical report to a La Jolla group of concerned citizens about the validity of the Rake A Line Seal Advocate Program at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla. The Rake A Line Program claims it is an educational program for the public on the harbor seals at the Children’s Pool. Here are the concluding comments of the Marine Mammalogy Panel on the Rake A Line Program:
“The Rake A Line Program at the Children’s Pool claims to educate people about the harbor seals at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla, California. After analysis of the Rake A Line Program literature and signs, we find this program has no valid agenda. The Rake A Line Program claims that people on the beach keep the harbor seals from hauling out on the beach. This is not true since there are plenty of photographs showing both seals and people on the beach at the Children’s Pool at any time of the day. The Rake A Line Program also claims the harbor seals will die if they do not use the Children’s Pool beach. This is also not true since the local harbor seals will use a number of beaches both offshore and on the coast. Wild harbor seals are found on isolated offshore locations for haul out activity, not public beaches. Numerous technical reports on the harbor seals at the Children’s Pool have concluded these seals are no longer wild becoming domesticated to humans. Since it appears the Rake A Line Program is associated with seal shirt and souvenir sales at the Children’s Pool, we suspect that there activities are tied to making a profit.