Web Photo Story by Mike Cuenca, Assistant Professor
William Allen White School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Kansas
Copyright 1996

Each year, groups of mature California Sea Lions leave their breeding grounds on the Channel Islands, off the California coast near Santa Barbara, and migrate north to food-rich Monterey Bay, a swim of more than 200 miles. But during the spring of 1996, almost 2000 two- to three-year-old juvenile sea lions made their way to the marina at Monterey for about a six-week visit. They "hauled out" onto the shore, clambering over each other, sometimes three and four deep, all the while barking, snorting and nipping at each other playfully and forming a loudly writhing carpet.

Monterey has a native population of Harbor Seals that live on the rocky coast along the city's waterfront, and older male California Sea Lions regularly migrate to Monterey's Coast Guard Pier and harbor breakwater, but this was a rare and unusually large migration of these younger sea lions, who more often migrate southward. Some marine biologists attributed the large numbers to the coincidental occurrence of a current of warmer-than-usual water in the north, producing more food, and a couple of unusually productive breeding years for the Sea Lion population at the Channel Islands.

At night, the sea lions would slip back into the water and swim northward along the beaches to feed. In the early morning hours, they could be seen in small groups, swimming southward back to the marina.

In the very top photo on this page, the sea lions that you can see with their flippers up out of the water are using the flippers to regulate their body temperature. In the picture at left, those with their heads thrown back, in what looks like a terribly uncomfortable contortion, are sunning themselves and sleeping.

The sea lions hauled themselves out everywhere they could in the marina, including moored boats. Boat owners often had to spray them with hoses to chase them off their ramps and boats. Here, after one of them found a particularly comfortable spot on a moored boat, it didn't take long before others enviously searched for a way to jump aboard.

During this temporary population explosion a number of dead marine mammals and birds, including seals, sea lions, pelicans and a six-and-a-half-foot leatherback turtle, washed up on the east-facing beaches of the bay. The carcasses were generally too far decomposed to provide many clues for marine biologists looking for causes. These deaths may be completely coincidental, but may also be a result of the increased competition for food in the bay.

Questions? Comments?

Thanks for stopping by!