Children's Pool Beach, Protected beach in La Jolla, US

Children's Pool Beach is a small beach in La Jolla, California, separated from the open ocean by a curved concrete wall. The sheltered cove sits north of downtown and attracts seals that lounge on the sandy shore and slide into the water.

Ellen Browning Scripps funded a concrete breakwater, completed in 1931 and confirmed by an act signed by Governor James Rolph Jr., to give children calm water. Seals began hauling out in the mid-1990s; pup births were first recorded in 1999. By late 2009 about 200 harbor seals used the beach regularly.

The beach's name comes from the sheltered pool the 1931 breakwater created for children. Since harbor seals began hauling out in the mid-1990s, the cove has hosted a long dispute between swimmers and seal advocates. In 2009 a state law let the City Council designate the beach a marine mammal sanctuary, and the council chose to keep the seals.

The beach lies at 850 Coast Boulevard, at the end of Jenner Street. A rope barrier advises visitors to keep their distance from the seals, especially during pupping season. The sand slopes gently from the concrete breakwater down to the waterline, so the seals rest on the dry upper stretch.

In 1994, a National Marine Fisheries Service report found no seals on the beach itself; by 1996, twice as many seals were using the beach as the nearby rocks, and the first pup births followed in 1999.