"More than 1,000 sea lions have gathered at San Francisco’s Pier 39 this spring, the largest herd in at least 15 years.
Mounds of floppy, delightfully ungraceful marine mammals have plopped themselves on to rafts along the city’s pier, displaying themselves to the thousands of tourists who pass by the area each day.
According to the staff at the pier, the gathering this year has been attracted to a feast of anchovies in the bay. “With a steady food supply from a large school of anchovy, the sea lions are extra active!” the pier tweeted from its official account this week.
The charming pinnipeds have become a major attraction in the city since they first arrived at the pier about 35 years ago. The first – a big guy that staff had nicknamed Flea Collar because he had a piece of fishing net stuck around his neck – arrived in 1989. And then several hundred of his friends followed."
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