“We received more email on this one item than we have on any other issue in recent memory,” said Mayor Bill Kampe upon announcing that the City’s ordinance amending the municipal code concerning seal pups had passed its first reading – unanimously.

The amendments work to codify a 2007 policy concerning protection of harbor seals which choose to pup on Pacific Grove beaches while at the same time protecting beaches popular with humans from being chosen by seals.

The beach that is the main concern is Lovers Point, where a mother seal chose this year to deliver and raise her pup. Temporary fences and signs went up to discourage people from going onto the beach and frightening the seal mother, which would have likely caused her to abandon her pup. Forty-three seal pups died this year on Pacific Grove beaches, far in excess of previous years. Human interference cold be the main reason.

Fence design suggestions, not part of the amendment, will be part of the City’s application to the Coastal Commission which will be submitted later.

In the first nine months of 2013 Bay Net volunteers talked with 23,000 members of the public, approximately twice what was tallied in 2012, according to Thom Akeman, a Bay Net volunteer who was instrumental in the work on the ordinance. He added, “Interest is growing.”

“That’s just in that 3/4 mile stretch from between Lovers Point and Hopkins Marine Station – an incredibly beautiful stretch of coast and prime harbor seal habitat,” said Akeman. “We talked to more [tourists] in Pacific Grove, particularly at Point Pinos, and of course in Monterey, Pebble Beach, Big Sur, Marina, Moss Landing, and Santa Cruz.”