SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) – In San Francisco, California, Pier 39 is gaining a lot of attention from tourists around the globe.
For more than a week, the sea lion population has been surging and it is the most seen in more than a decade.
Visitors will find a lot to see and do around Pier 39 such as the shops, the restaurants, and the Ferris wheel. But perhaps the star attractions right now are the sea lions.
People are here hoping to get their best shot of the sea lions in the water and on the docks.
“It’s very cute. Like he’s sleeplike,” Tiffany Shieh, who is visiting from Taiwan, said.
Joe Balbi, a San Francisco resident, said the sea lions are the only reason he comes down to Pier 39.
“They are so funny and so nice, I love them,” Aurora Zentile, visiting from Italy, said. “They are like pushing each other off in the water.”
Some visitors have noticed a big difference in the number of sea lions.
“Last year, I come here, it’s not like that much,” Shieh said.
Sheila Chandor, the harbormaster for Pier 39 Marina, said they’ve counted about 1,000 sea lions this week.
That’s the most in quite some time.
“We haven’t had these kinds of numbers of sea lions probably for over 15 years,” she said.
Chandor said the surge in sea lions started about a week and a half ago.
The sea lions are moving in toward the Bay because they are following the food, according to Chandor.
“There’s a huge herd of sea lions that are traveling south right now to the Channel Islands for mating and there’s a big school of anchovy out by the Farallon Islands that has come into the bay,” Chandor said.
Adam Ratner with the Marine Mammal Center said it is like a “dinner bell” for the sea lions.
“It’s kind of that dinner bell, if you will, that’s ringing and all the sea lions are coming in enjoying that feast,” he said.
Ratner said that in October of 2009, about 1,700 sea lions gathered at Pier 39.
Over the years, the numbers have really fluctuated.
Ratner believes the recent surge is a sign that San Francisco Bay is doing well.
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