In the Fourth District Appellate Court, the Panel ruled that the terms of the 1931 deed for Children's Pool requires the city to maintain the pool for the exclusive use of San Diego's children. That would mean moving the seals off the beach and cleaning up the seal excrement. (Each week the County Health Department issues warnings about the pollution in Children's Pool.)
The City Attorney has said he will appeal the decision by the Appellate Court. If he is not successful, the City will have to get approvals from the California Coastal Commission and the Federal Government.
Background: As human population grows and development continues, wild species are usually pushed back or even threatened. However, as most San Diegan's know, the exception are the seals in La Jolla's Children's Pool. The seal population has increased over the decades; resulting in them to moving from offshore rocks to the sand at Children's Beach. To beach-goers, that is not surprising since laying on warm sand is far more comfortable than cold, hard rocks.
The City's initial response to the seal settlement was a strange policy of dual use by people and seals. That "compromise" policy resulted in numerous confrontations between beach goers and seal-protection activists.
