Sea Lions

The sea lions at Pier 39 began their long-term residency in late 1989, shortly after the Loma Prieta earthquake shook the San Francisco Bay Area. While the seismic event did not directly cause their arrival, it coincided with a period of harbor renovations that left the wooden docks unusually empty. When a solitary male sea lion first hauled itself onto the K-Dock, it found a protected, food-rich environment free from natural predators like white sharks and orcas. Within a few months, word had apparently spread among the colony, and hundreds of these massive pinnipeds had claimed the space as their own.