It can be frustrating (and/or alarming) to go to the beach to see the seals and find only empty sand. Where did they go? Have they abandoned Children's Pool? Left La Jolla? Been chased off? One hears such questions regularly.
Truth is, nobody really knows where they go when they leave the beach and Seal Rock area; "out to feed" presumably covers many absences, but is not the whole story. What we do know is that there is nothing unusual about coming and going at a seal haulout.
With few exceptions, these counts were made before 8:00am, and often there are 50+ seals on the beach before 8:00am and none by 9:00. The overall average is indicated by the dashed line. The seals seem to be early risers and hit the surf soon after sunrise. Click for updates.
Part of the variation is seasonal, as shown here:
As you can see, counts at the Children's Pool beach tend to be high during the winter and fall during the summer, reaching a low in October/November before climbing again. One possibility is that the warm, sheltered beach is just a little too warm for the seals during the summer. This certainly fits with the daily pattern, above.
Interestingly, counts from nearby Seal Rock show less variation:
This is at least consistent with the idea that it sometimes gets too hot on the sand for the seals to be comfortable. Many of us have both AC and heat in our homes; seals have to find comfortable temperatures some other way. For more on how seals use haulouts to regulate temperature (and so their metabolism, and whole energy budget), click here.
These counts come from ongoing research by UCSD students. Seals are counted at least twice, with additional counts as needed to resolve discrepancies; whenever possible two observers do independent counts to ensure accuracy.
# of seals date time on sand/wall rock/ total # (AM) submarine rock seals 10/7 7:00 100/1/0 101 10/8 7:00 81/0/0 81 7:15 73/0/0 73 7:30 71/0/0 71 10/9 7:10 85/2/0 87 10/10 6:30 86/3/2 91 6:45 86/3/2 91 7:15 66/3/2 71 10/11 7:15 136/3/0 139 9:15 15/0/0 15 10/12 7:15 82/3/1 86 10/13 7:15 78/3/1 82 10/14 7:15 76/0/0 76 10/15 7:18 100/5/0 105 9:00 97/5/0 102 10/16 7:15 72/3/0 75 10/17 7:15 56/1/3 60 10/18 7:19 35/0/1 36 8:14 19/0/1 20 10/19 6:45 27/2/2 31 7:20 25/0/0 25 8:20 18/0/6 24 10/20 7:15 32/1/5 38 8:00 32/0/8 40 10/21 7:19 46/0/0 46 10/22 7:19 81/0/0 81 10/23 7:12 49/0/0 49 10/24 7:15 45/1/0 46 10/25 7:15 48/1/1 50 8:00 39/1/0 40 10/26 7:30 84/1/0 85 8:00 63/1/0 64 10/27 7:17 127/3/2 132 10/28 7:15 100/4/2 106 10/29 7:15 82/0/0 82 10/30 7:00 111/1/1 113 7:20 114/2/2 118 10/31 6:50 72/2/1 75 7:15 61/1/1 63 11/1 6:30 62/3/0 65 7:30 49/0/0 49 7:45 48/0/2 50 8:00 40/0/2 42 11/2 6:30 62/0/0 62 7:15 40/0/0 40 11/3 6:30 56/1/0 57 7:15 49/0/0 49 8:00 49/0/0 49