{"id":1024585,"date":"2024-05-01T14:31:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T21:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/?p=1024585"},"modified":"2026-10-05T23:36:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T06:36:54","slug":"record-number-of-barking-mad-sea-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaegisalliance.com\/fr\/2024\/05\/01\/record-number-of-barking-mad-sea-lions\/","title":{"rendered":"A Scarred Steller Took Pier 39’s Dock, and the Harbormaster Says the Marks Prove It Is Not Chonkers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pier 39 spent the spring of 2026 teaching tourists one name. The fall is teaching them that the name was a species. On Wednesday, September 23, a Steller sea lion roughly 10 feet long hauled out on the floating docks at Fisherman’s Wharf, barked over a carpet of California sea lions, and set off the same question the waterfront has been failing all year: is that Chonkers? Harbormaster Sheila Chandor and the California Academy of Sciences say no. The new animal is smaller. The scars do not match. Sue Pemberton, who works the academy’s marine-mammal stranding program and has been on the pier for 41 years, told KRON4 this is the first time she has seen this many Steller visits at Pier 39. The food she and Chandor both pointed at was not a mystery celebrity. It was sardines in the marina.<\/p>\n

Chonkers is still the animal people came for. He is a Steller, a different species from the California sea lions that have owned K-Dock since the Loma Prieta earthquake emptied the slips in 1989. Adult male Stellers can run about 11 feet and up toward 2,500 pounds. A large California male at the pier is closer to 700 or 800 pounds, and the biggest of that species on record is about 1,000. Chandor has said Chonkers usually passes through about every two years and stays a few days. Staff nicknamed the routine \u00ab\u00a0Morning Glory,\u00a0\u00bb because he tended to show between 7 and 9 a.m., then roll off to fish. The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito started a log on March 13, 2026, the day he arrived with a juvenile Steller that left after a few days. Pier 39’s own video from that morning went wide. A San Francisco Reddit thread supplied the name, a play on \u00ab\u00a0chonky.\u00a0\u00bb The Wall Street Journal later described a crowd of more than a hundred people watching him on a single April afternoon. Estimates put him near 2,000 pounds. \u00ab\u00a0He’s literally twice the size of the biggest California sea lion that you can see out there,\u00a0\u00bb Chandor told ABC7 during the stay. When he dropped onto the wood, witnesses compared the sound to an oak coming down.<\/p>\n

\"California
The 2024 haul-out turned Fisherman’s Wharf into a viewing stand. (ABC7)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He Left in May. The Impostors Started in September.<\/h2>\n

The long stay lasted roughly six weeks, into the beginning of May. The center told reporters he had not been seen at the dock since about May 1. On May 4 a large animal drew cameras and was not him. Sue Muzzin, Pier 39’s vice president of public relations, looked at the frames and said so. Adam Ratner, director of conservation engagement at the Marine Mammal Center, went further: that particular stand-in was not a Steller at all. It was a very large adult male California sea lion wearing the lighting of a celebrity. The mayor had been stood up. Signs at the pier still advertised a guest who had already swum off, possibly toward food, possibly toward a mate. Eastern Stellers are more often counted in Alaska and British Columbia. San Francisco is a side trip, not a home address.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, September 3, another enormous Steller took a dock for a day. Staff looked hard, decided he was not Chonkers, and informally named him the Beefy Buddy. Muzzin said they had \u00ab\u00a0definitely\u00a0\u00bb seen him that Thursday and had not seen him Friday. \u00ab\u00a0Not that this guy is small,\u00a0\u00bb she said. Chandor has described 2026 as the year with more Steller traffic than any she can remember, and she has been the harbormaster through a lot of anchovy seasons. One theory floated by spotters is that the juvenile who arrived with Chonkers in March could be one of the autumn returnees. Nobody has a tag that proves it. Stellers are not microchipped tourists. They are scars, size, and a lighter coat, and then they are gone.<\/p>\n

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I was wondering where Chonkers the sea lion went and now I know<\/p>\n

— ms.sinn (@ms_punkymom) September 27, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n