Pier 39 Celebrates Return of Missing Sea Lions and 20th Anniversary of Their Arrival

It was a party to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the sea lions' arrival at Pier 39 - and this time the guests of honour did show up!

Around 200 sea lions put in a lively, boisterous appearance as a band struck up on the pier and fellow guests donned party hats, munched birthday cake and cup cakes, and partied.

 The centre party piece was a cake artistically decorated with a seal on top. Cutting the cake marked the start of celebrations at 11 am, the honour falling to Kathy Paver, Marketing Senior Vice-President of Pier 39, and Jeff Boehm, Executive Director of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, with a little help from Salty.

Kathy said she was 'absolutely thrilled' at the party. 'We had to postpone because we had none of our friends here!' she said.

The party had been due to be held in January, marking the month in 1990 when the sea lions began to cluster in K-dock, but after reaching record numbers last fall, the animals suddenly disappeared leaving only a handful of stalwarts.

Pier 39 were waiting for between 100 and 200 to return before they held the party. Slowly, over the last few weeks there has been a stable increase in numbers and so today also became a Welcome Home party.

The 'favourite of tourists and residents alike' are back. 'Everybody's happy!' said Kathy.

No-one knows the history of the sea lions better than her for she has been there from the beginning when they put in their first unexpected appearance in K-Dock. And it wasn't easy! Kathy was a shopping center developer, in post at the pier for less than two years. Suddenly she was carer for a small colony of barking, boisterous sea lions, a role that hadn't been included in her job description!

'There was a whole group of us that didn't know what to do!' she said. 

At first, the number of sea lions was small. 'We had a few, then a few more,' she said. Soon, numbers rose to between three-and-four hundred, the sea lions having swum around the curve of the coastline and into the bay. They were relocating from Seal Rocks, below Cliff House at the north end of Ocean Beach.

She rang the Marine Mammal Center across the bay in Sausalito, and credits Ann Bower, Director of Education, with a lot of the success of the sea lions' residency. Also Sheila Chandor, Harbourmaster, both of whom were guests at the party today.

Kathy discovered that the sea lions were a protected species and, next, that their arrival attracted a lot of media attention. K-Dock at that time had both local boats moored there and a guest docking area, and the boats were having trouble navigating around the new arrivals.

'We really just decided, "Well okay! You win!"'' she said. They found moorings for the boats elsewhere and created a protective environment within a far more unusual urban setting.

'I remember walking in high heels down the dock and thinking "I'm out of my mind!"'

Gradually, with experience, other safety issues were added. Entry to the dock was closed to the public and journalists no longer interviewed on the dock. Part of the success story is that over the 20 years there have been no accidents to either the sea lions or people, she said.

pics also by Simon

No Sign of Injured Pier 39 Sea Lion

There were no signs of any sightings today of the two sea lions from Fisherman's Wharf that had been spotted entangled in what are thought to be fishing lines.

Members of the Marine Mammal Center of Sausalito spent hours yesterday searching for the first of the injured sea lions shown in filming by CBS5 to be both injured and trussed around his neck and muzzle.

The distressed animal was seen at Pier 39 and reported to the center late on Friday night, but a rescue was postponed until daylight the following day. In the interim, the sea lion vanished back into the water.

Then at Hyde Street Pier late yesterday afternoon, a sighting of a second sea lion with possibly a fishing line around it's neck was reported and a rescue attempt made, but this animal also disappeared back into the sea.

Members of the center have continued to search with one craft, but are also on a 'watch and wait' mode, hoping that the sea lions will either haul out in daylight for a rescue attempt to be made, or that they will be sighted in the bay.

 At Fisherman's Wharf this afternoon, a slightly larger number of sea lions than were there yesterday were stretched out on the end pontoon.

pics show the sea lions at 1 pm on the pontoon, and catching the interest of tourists on the Blue & Gold Fleet ferry; the bay at the end of Pier 39 with Alcatraz in the background; the view from Hyde Street Pier looking across Aquatic Park at North Beach, with only swimmers in the water.

Hunt for Injured Pier 39 Sea Lion

A sea hunt for an injured sea lion spotted yesterday by tourists at Pier 39 has been underway from early this morning.

The Marine Mammal Center of Sausalito sent out a small craft at daylight to scour the bay.

The sea lion was seen yesterday on a float down the front of Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf with what NBC11 reported as wire or netting wrapped around his muzzle and possibly rope around his neck.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local-beat/Search-Is-On-For-Injured-Sea-Lion-80503827.html

However, although members of the Marine Mammal Center went late at night to see the sea lion, early this morning it slipped off the float and disappeared into the bay. Marjorie Boor, a volunteer with the center who was at the helm of the search craft, said she thought it had gone back into the water sometime around 6.30 to 7.00 am.

The sea lion is considered to be a 'pretty big' male, weighing around 350-375 pounds.

'We are in "watch and wait" mode, Marjorie said, having pulled up her craft in K-Dock just before midday.

She wasn't sure of the extent of the injuries or entanglement. There was a possibility the sea lion had managed to shake the noose off his muzzle and was able to swim and feed unhampered. 'Basically, he's going out to forage,' she said.

'The worse case scenario is that he won't be able to eat, he'll be so weak we'll be able to pick him up, take him to the center and fatten him up.' She was confident that the sea lion, if still in distress, would be found over the next couple of days because injured sea lions haul out, she said.

Her search was taking her between Pier 39 and Alcatraz, where there were bull seals, and around the Embarcadero and Hyde Street Pier.

It has been reported by NBC11 that early onlookers were critical of the apparent lack of action taken by the Marine Mammal Center.

However, Marjorie said that trying to pick up sea lions that are not restrained and secure is a risky business.

'They are intelligent. You can look them in the eye and tell there's some connection there. But make no mistake, they'll bite your arm right off.'

Anaesthesia was also not the answer, she said. To pick up a sea lion, a 'kamikaze' net would need to be put around the float. But sea lions can twist their necks quickly in a figure of 8, flip out of the net and slip into the water and disappear.

The danger to the sea lion is that if it flipped out before the drug had taken effect, it would die in the sea. The other problem generally with an anaesthetic is that it masks the condition of an animal. We need to know 'how up is it?' she said.

'The last thing we want to do is pick up an animal. They're better at healing themselves than we are.'

Marjorie was the only person from the center searching the bay because it is a land-based operation and is not equipped or licensed to pick up wild animals in the sea, she added.

What did she think of the missing herd of sea lions from Pier 39 who from being at record numbers of over 1,500 animals in the fall and rising to 1,700, had mysteriously dwindled to a handful by the end of November? And where did she think they might be?

They had gone in search of food, she said, listing some of the places she thought they would be: the Farallon Islands, Moss Beach, the Channel Islands, off the southern California coast, and Año Nuevo Island, where there is a herd of elephant seals.

The sea lions have famously been at Pier 39 for exactly 20 years this month, moving there in the aftermath of the Loma Prieta earthquake. Although they are migratory, their numbers have never been so low.

'I've seen them disappear before, but I've seen them come back!' said Marjorie.

'They'll be back!'

pics show news crews and a few early morning tourists scanning K-Dock; a handful of midday tourists with only three sea lions and themselves to photograph

An on-the-spot report by CBS5 journalist, Joe Vazquez, not only captures the plight of the injured sea lion on camera but details the conflict between Erin Brodie, Stranding Coordinator of the Marine Mammal Center, who said protocols prevented a nighttime rescue attempt, and members of the public who wanted to see immediate intervention.

Tonight there are reports of a second sea lion being spotted with entanglements at Hyde Street Pier at the opposite end of Fisherman's Wharf. Jim Oswald, media spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center, is reported on CBS5 as saying that two rescue attempts failed and the sea lion slipped back into the sea.

See CBS5.com