For the third year, the Sierra Club Seal Society launched the UC San Diego Pup Patrol in late January and trained 69 UCSD environmental sciences and marine biology students to be public educators/docents at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla for the 2026 seal birthing season.

The students also record the number of adult seals and pups in and around the Children’s Pool. Each year and just for fun, a naming theme for newborn seal pups is selected. Whoever witnesses a birth gets to name the pup. With some 43 seal pups born at the time of this writing, most have received tropical names like Papaya and Guava.

Look for the UCSD Pup Patrol at the Children’s Pool from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through April.

A few students shared their experiences in educating the public with us:

Roy Sutirtho: “Having experience with large terrestrial vertebrates, I was excited by the prospect of going marine. Being a seal docent was (and still is) so fulfilling! While approaching people to talk about seals was initially quite daunting … everyone was so eager to learn that my worries ebbed away like a low tide. Soon I began looking toward Friday afternoons when I would docent and talk about seals and sea lions.

“Being a seal docent has been the right choice at the right time. I get to learn more about seals and step outside my comfort zone. I am definitely going to find other ways to connect with Sierra Club Seal Society and hopefully witness my first live seal birth.”

Megan Kassebaum: Seal Pup Patrol has helped me find community, and as a returning docent and now co-president of the UCSD Seal Club, it’s been so rewarding to be more involved. Volunteering at the Children’s Pool beach is such a unique experience. Watching wild newborn seal pups play and sharing the joy and knowledge with curious visitors are really special. It’s so refreshing to get off campus, be in nature and interact with people from all over the world.

“Being a docent has been one of the most fulfilling parts of my college experience, and I will continue to volunteer until I graduate.”

Evangeline Burger: “I am a new Pup Patrol docent. When I signed up for Pup Patrol, I was just looking to volunteer near my school and the experience was related to my major in biology.

“Approaching strangers of all different backgrounds to talk to them about the seals is such a new experience for me. I am pretty extroverted, but I was still scared at first. However, after weeks of doing it, I can safely say it is one of my favorite times of the week. I can get people excited and passionate about the seals and protecting them. I communicate with all kinds of people of all ages, which not only helps me build my public speaking skills but also gets me out of my own social bubble.

“Overall, it’s such a privilege to be able to spend time out of my week talking to the public as well as watching the seals and pups, and I am excited to continue my journey as a docent.”

Footprints in the sand

During the first few months of the pupping season closure period, which lasts from Dec. 15 to May 15, UCSD Pup Patrol and Sierra Club docents sighted and reported footprints in the sand at Children’s Pool beach and videoed two divers exiting the water.

Please remember to respect the San Diego city law that prohibits anyone from being on the beach during the breeding and pupping season. If you see someone on the beach, please alert the lifeguards.

Educational activities

To further educate the public, the Seal Society held four “Talk and Walk” events at Mangelsen Images of Nature Gallery in February: a free public lecture about seals, their history in La Jolla — which goes back as far as 1887, according to a historical survey map — their reproduction cycle and behaviors. The lectures were followed by a docent-led tour of the Children’s Pool.

Advocacy for better protections

The Seal Society supports keeping La Jolla Cove open year-round and repeatedly asks the city to manage the area by staffing rangers at The Cove, making announcements on a bullhorn asking people to stay 20 feet away from the sea lions for their safety as well as the safety of the sea lions, placing cones and tape around newborn sea lions and injured sea lions awaiting rescue, and putting up signs in international languages.

These are similar requests to those of the La Jolla Cove Access Working Group that the Seal Society participated in. Rangers are now monitoring The Cove daily and making announcements.

Beach cleanup opportunity

From 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, April 25, for I Love a Clean San Diego’s Creek to Bay Cleanup, Seal Society docents will again be team captains at Scripps Park and the Children’s Pool to coincide with Earth Day on April 22.

For more information about joining us, visit cleansd.org/events/list/page/2.

Robyn Davidoff is president and Carol Archibald is a docent of the Sierra Club Seal Society. ♦