{"id":158629,"date":"2026-02-01T01:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158629\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T01:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T01:46:15","slug":"2026s-first-seal-pup-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/158629\/","title":{"rendered":"2026’s first seal pup born"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a special end to January in La Jolla, as beach goers welcomed the first seal pup of 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had no idea that it was pupping season! I didn’t know that was a thing,\u201d San Diego visitor Gail shooter says. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting that they’ve got the little babies out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Volunteers say the pup named Persimmon is already thriving.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe’s growing phenomenally,\u201d Seal Society Volunteer Purnima Oza says. \u201cShe’s playing, she gets on her back now, she actually swims on her back! She’s so funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019ve walked by Children\u2019s Pool in La Jolla between mid December and mid May, you may have come across this sign:<\/p>\n

\"La<\/p>\n

Olivia gonzalez britt<\/p>\n

It\u2019s to protect the seals during pupping season, but not everyone has been following the rules.<\/p>\n

The Sierra Club Seal Society of San Diego says footprints have been found on the beach in recent weeks, an area that\u2019s off-limits during pupping season.<\/p>\n

\"Beach<\/p>\n

Sierra Club Seal Society of San Diego<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody is allowed on the beach for their safety, for their protection,\u201d Oza says. \u201cThey’re a protected species.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why volunteers and San Diego lifeguards monitor the cove daily. But Sierra Club volunteers not only watch over the pups and their mothers, they also educate visitors and prevent dangerous interactions.<\/p>\n

Last year, three sea lion pups died at the cove, with human contact suspected as a contributing factor.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people were to touch them or spook them or get too close, the mother will in fact abandon it because the scent of a human is threatening to seals,\u201d Oza warns.<\/p>\n

In the coming weeks, more pups are expected to arrive. For now, Persimmon, La Jolla\u2019s newest resident, is doing great.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a special end to January in La Jolla, as beach goers welcomed the first seal pup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[77347,77348,930,74,76,75,77349,77350],"class_list":{"0":"post-158629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-beach-closed","9":"tag-childrnes-pool","10":"tag-la-jolla","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-san-diego-headlines","13":"tag-san-diego-news","14":"tag-seal","15":"tag-seal-pup"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}