In the past I have seen a few California Sea Lions at zoos but one my first visit to California I wanted to make sure I saw them in the wild. On my first day in San Francisco I walked down to Pier 39. This is a very popular tourist attraction filled with gift shops and sea food restaurants. Getting to the docks first thing in the morning meant there were only a couple of other tourist and the morning sunlight looked great on the sea lions. The photograph above shows less than half a dozen of the seals but there were hundreds. The Marine Mammal Store and Interpretive Center monitor the sea lion population each day and there have been as many as 1700 on the docks at one time. Whilst the smell was particularly unpleasant I spent at least an hour just watching them.
Taking only photographs – leaving only footprints
