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California Sea Lions at Pier 39 – San Francisco Bay

August 13th, 2012 · No Comments · Fisherman's Wharf

Here are some videos and a video transcription of the live presentations done at Pier 39 to share the life of the sea lions that live  in San Francisco:

There are 49 California sea lions who make their home here at Pier 39 in San Francisco.  Originally, we took a count in 2009 that showed 1,701 California sea lions came to Fisherman’s Wharf. So you can see that the sea lion population is significantly increasing.

There are two main seasons why they’re here at Pier 39:

  • So for good food, they come here.
  • They’re also safe here. The main predators of the California sea lions are orcas whales and great white sharks. Neither of them feed in the San Francisco Bay because it’s not a good environment for them.

The California sea lions have two migrations from Baja California to northern California and back again. But the males will be the ones to do a migration north before the females. So today, we have mostly male California sea lions. And once it’s June to July 20th the California sea lions start coming back.  As time goes on there will be more because the feeding conditions  have been very good.

The California sea lions at Fisherman’s Wharf that are males are 850 pounds; the females are 220 pounds, so quite differences in their size.  The California sea lions– when you look at them, you’ll notice that they don’t mind showing their face.  That’s just a natural behavior for them.  They do that because they are social animals.   When they want to warm up after being in the cold water, what they do is they put their head in the air. You’ll also notice that some look more furry than others. The furrier ones have not been in the water as much as the ones that look more slick.

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