The annual closure of the Children's Pool for harbor seal pupping season started on Sunday.
The beach area will remain closed through May 15, 2020.
The Children's Pool was opened in 1932 after Ellen Browning Scripps paid for a seawall to built so that inexperienced swimmers can enjoy the beach. Seals started to use the relatively calm water of the beach to rear their pups in the 1990s.
The city started closing the beach in 2014 after environmentalists complained that people were disturbing the marine mammals. The California Coastal Commission issued a permit allowing the beach to close to protect the seals.
A group advocating for beach access called Friends of the Children's Pool sued the city arguing that the closure violated the California Coastal Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act.
A lower court sided with the group but the issued was resolved in the city's favor last year when an appeals court reversed the decision, allowing the city to close the beach for 5 1/2 months each year.
