Nothing prepares you for mating like a seafood buffet. Well, at least if you’re a sea lion.
A huge group of anchovy in the San Francisco Bay has attracted around 1,700 sea lions to Pier 39 near the city’s Fisherman’s Wharf district. Not since the early 1990s has the area seen this many sea lions, Sheila Candor, Harbormaster at Pier 39, told the Associated Press. In recent decades, fewer than a thousand sea lions flopped onto the pier each spring.
Pier 39 is a sea lion rest stop of sorts, a place to fill up on anchovies and herring before heading south to the Channel Islands for mating season. The pier docks use three times the floatation support as normal docks to support the weight of the blubbery sea beasts.
If you’re planning to visit this year’s herd of sea lions, prepare for a chorus of loud barking and frequent displays of sun-basked lounging and fin-slap bickering. And if you can’t make it to San Francisco, enjoy these photos we collected.
