Famous Lounging Sea Lions
San Francisco, California
Hundreds of lounging sea lions arrived at the calm waters next to Pier 39 on December 22, 1989, and have never left. Officials speculate that a new pier -- which is a kind of mall jutting over the water -- offered protection, and that the "plentiful herring supply" was too good for the sea lions to go anywhere else.
On any nice day there are scores of tourists snapping photos of the sea lions. A large "Pier 39" sign inserted into the scene dispels any notion that the spontaneous gathering is new.
The sea lions mostly lounge on wooden platforms, bellowing in unison and providing an occasional lifted head, wave of a flipper, or slick slide into the bay.
The sea lions do occasionally disappear en masse -- usually during mating season -- but they always return. A particularly abrupt vanishing act in late 2009 led to much worried speculation about the collapse of the ecosystem, but it turned out that most of the sea lions had simply taken a vacation, relocating north to Sea Lion Caves in Oregon. They were back at Pier 39 by Spring 2010.
In January 2014 Pier 39 opened Sea Lion Center, a kind of air lock between the sea lions and the rest of the world. Visitors can touch a sea lion pelt, study a sea lion skeleton, and see a numerical tally of current sea lion loungers. Tourists are warned about the smell before they walk to an outdoor overlook.