How many seals live along the California coast?
Harbor seals appear to be a robust species whose numbers have been growing along the California coast. Last year, a federal survey estimated the state’s harbor seal population at 34,000, most of them at the Channel Islands. While harbor seals are not listed as an endangered species, they are afforded safeguards under the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act. It is illegal to kill or harass them without a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. How many harbor seals are born annually at Children’s Pool beach? Pupping season for harbor seals typically begins in early to mid-January. From 10 to 20 pups are born at Children’s Pool each year, Yochem said. The first births at the cove were documented in 1999. Harbor seals can give birth on land or in the water; elephant seals nearly always deliver on land. Harbor seal pups are especially precocious and can swim at birth. They wean from their mothers in four to seven weeks, and the last pups of the season may not wean until the end
