An Anchovy Feast Draws a Crush of Sea Lions to One of San Francisco’s Piers, the Most in 15 Years

TIME

San Francisco’s famed Fisherman’s Wharf district is seeing a surge in sea lions.

Transcript

00:00 [CHILDREN PLAYING]

00:03 The numbers that we're seeing right now are over 1,000.

00:16 We've counted them.

00:18 And they're over 1,000.

00:20 And this is unusual because--

00:22 well, when they first came here, historically,

00:26 in the early '90s, we did have these kind of numbers.

00:29 In fact, they got up to 1,700 sometimes.

00:31 But over the years, that's dwindled down

00:34 to an average, I would say, of between 300 and 400

00:37 in the winter.

00:38 And as the spring comes in, maybe up to 700.

00:42 So you're looking at almost double the numbers.

00:46 And the reason they've arrived is

00:48 there's a huge school of anchovy that

00:51 was off the Farallon Islands that's in the bay right now.

00:54 So it's all about the seafood.

00:56 It's all about the food.

00:58 And these animals, a lot of them are on their way

01:00 down south at the moment.

01:02 A big herd of them are on the way down south

01:04 for the mating season.

01:05 We actually build these here.

01:11 And we have to use three times the density of flotation

01:15 that we do on the normal docks.

01:17 These are custom-made to support these guys.

01:20 We've never had one sink or capsize yet.

01:23 But you know--

01:24 They're getting put to the test now, for sure.

01:26 I think we are close to our maximum, for sure.

01:29 It is crazy.

01:34 I've never seen that many sea lions in one place.

01:37 And I heard about that place.

01:39 And we came here a few minutes ago.

01:41 And it's awesome to see them.

01:42 It's very loud, of course.

01:43 But it's really nice to see all of them.

01:45 And it's funny to watch them fight and relax in the sun.

01:49 It's not like in a zoo.

01:55 They're not trapped.

01:55 They can be here if they want to be here.

01:57 But it's just so cool to see them all here.

01:59 And it's so interesting.

02:00 They're so loud.

02:01 The bay is very healthy right now.

02:08 If it wasn't, we wouldn't see these kind of numbers,

02:11 for sure.

02:12 So it's good news all around.

02:14 [SEALS BARKING]

02:18 (children laughing)

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