Marine Protected Areas<\/a>, where it is illegal to injure, damage, take or even temporarily handle marine life.<\/p>\n\u201cIf people are collecting wildlife in those tide pools, even if they\u2019re going to just hold them for a little bit, it is a violation of that section, and they could be issued a citation for that,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Enforcing those rules can be challenging. Smith is one of just eight wildlife officers responsible for patrolling nearly 70 miles of San Diego County coastline. During the most recent King Tide, the department was stretched thin to manage the crowds.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur wildlife officers made over 300 contacts, issued over 25 warnings and issued about 13 citations,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
Fines for violations can reach around $500, but officers say education is just as important as enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, all the creatures in and out of the water are wildlife,\u201d said snorkeler Noah Tadd-Colburn. \u201cWe just need to admire them from afar without bothering them.\u201d<\/p>\n
That same message applies beyond the tide pools. La Jolla\u2019s Children\u2019s Pool is currently closed during harbor seal pupping season to protect mothers and newborns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best thing we can do is just leave them be, give them their space,\u201d said Robert Torres.<\/p>\n
Later this year, during sea lion pupping season at Point La Jolla, a time when officials say people often get too close for photos, the City of San Diego plans to staff the area daily with park rangers to keep the public at a safe distance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was their land long before it was ours,\u201d said Sue Bonga, a tourist visiting La Jolla Cove. \u201cIt\u2019s us who are imposing on their territory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials say the rules for tide pools and marine mammals are simple. You can look, but don\u2019t touch. Anyone who sees wildlife being harassed or tide pools being damaged is encouraged to report it to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife<\/a> through the CalTIP hotline at 888-334-2258.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Viral videos are prompting questions about who enforces the rules along San Diego\u2019s coast and what happens when…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":500879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,1582,276,3549,7264,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-500878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-san-diego","12":"tag-sandiego","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115858452366297556","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}