Pier 39 Sea Lions in San Francisco: When They're There, How Many and Where to Watch

In September 1989 a few California sea lions hauled themselves out onto the boat docks at Pier 39, on San Francisco's waterfront. By January 1990 there were about 150. The marina's boat owners wanted them gone. The city decided otherwise, the boats moved, and the docks were left to the sea lions. They've been the most popular free show in San Francisco ever since.

Nobody knows exactly why they picked this spot. The docks are sheltered from the open bay, there's herring nearby in winter, and nothing here hunts them. That seems to have been enough.

The photo below is a normal afternoon on K-Dock. Wooden floats packed edge to edge with sleeping sea lions, brown bodies draped over each other, a few heads raised, one swimming in the gap between floats and the wooden pilings sticking up from the green water.

When they're there

Numbers rise and fall with the seasons and the fish. Winter and early spring usually bring the biggest crowds; the highest official count was about 1,700 in November 2009, and in May 2024 a herring and anchovy run brought a surge that the Marine Mammal Center and local press put as high as 2,000.

In June and July most of the males leave for the Channel Islands off Southern California to breed, and the docks can thin out sharply. Some years they're nearly empty for a few weeks. If seeing them is the point of your visit, go in autumn, winter or spring.

Watching them

The viewing area is at the west side of the pier, on the upper and lower decks, and it's free and open all day. Go in the morning, before the pier's shops and restaurants fill and before the crowds of the afternoon.

Listen before you look. Sea lions are loud, a constant barking and honking that carries along the whole waterfront. The big ones are males, with a raised bump on the top of the head. They fight for space on the floats, shove each other into the water and climb straight back.

Don't feed them, don't throw anything at them and don't try to climb down to the docks. They're wild animals, they bite, and federal law protects them. Naturalists from the Marine Mammal Center sometimes give talks on the pier and answer questions.

Around the pier

Pier 39 itself is a strip of shops, restaurants and street performers, and it's as touristy as it sounds. The real attractions are the views: Alcatraz straight out across the water, the Golden Gate Bridge to the west and the bay ferries going past. Walk on along the Embarcadero to the Ferry Building, or west to Fisherman's Wharf and the old ships at the Hyde Street Pier.

More on the docks: Lazy Afternoons With the Sea Lions of Pier 39, San Francisco on Travel Marketing.