The 1,500 feet of beach containing Carpinteria’s harbor seal rookery is one of the two remaining breeding and pupping grounds left on the mainland in Southern California. Most days, it contains fewer than 100 seals. In 2004, 365 seals were counted.
While harbor seals are not endangered, their beach rookeries may be. Carpinteria’s Save Our Seals (SOS) nonprofit formed around 2021 out of a concern that the seals’ habitats along the coast were rapidly disappearing. The group’s Seal Watch volunteer program is in the middle of its November-to-May monitoring of the beach to keep beachgoers and dogs from disrupting the rookery during low tide. Currently, SOS is seeking volunteers to assist its public education efforts at the Overlook, up on the Carp Bluffs off the Coastal Vista Trail.
Harbor seals have established rookeries for more than 100 years in Carpinteria, said Susan Mailheau and Randall Moon, who are members of Save Our Seals. Harbor seals have site fidelity to their birthplace, living out their life cycle of 25-30 years wherever they were born, underlining the importance of preserving and protecting the rookery. The beach itself serves to help the marine mammals thermoregulate year-round, digest their food, sleep, and prepare to dive. The sandy shore is important to seasonal processes, such as mating, giving birth, summer molting, and generating milk to feed their young…