A Conversation with Azi Sharif, Founder of Wildlife Jewels

The Children's Pool in La Jolla. Photo by Lauren Koenig.

By Lauren Koenig

I met Azi Sharif this past May at the Children's Pool in La Jolla, California — a spot originally built as a safe place for children to swim, now a popular refuge for seals and sea lions instead. Even with beachgoers and tourists all around, Sharif was completely focused, writing notes and carefully observing a colony of nesting gulls on the sand and in the rocks nearby. It's rare for wildlife and people to share ground this closely, but this stretch of coast depends on that coexistence working out for everyone.

Left: Harbor seals resting at the Children's Pool beach in La Jolla, California. Photo by Lauren Koenig. Center: Azi Sharif. Photo courtesy of Wildlife Jewels®. Right: Protected gull nests being monitored by  Wildlife Jewels®. Photo by Lauren Koenig.

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