San Francisco's Pier 39 repairs docks amid surge in sea lions

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A week after San Francisco's Pier 39 reported a surge in sea lions, the docks are looking emptier on Tuesday. The harbormaster's office tells us there were so many sea lions hanging out there, the floating docks needed repairs.

The sea lions temporarily moved themselves away as they fixed the dock.

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Pier 39 has a year-round maintenance program on the floats where the sea lions hang out, and the floats are inspected frequently along with routine maintenance.

Recently, the maintenance crew noticed that one of the floats had some loose bolts, possibly because of the high number of sea lions filling up them up recently.

VIDEO: Record number of sea lions swarm SF's Pier 39; largest gathering in about 15 years, officials say

Pier 39 is getting a lot of attention right now. It's seeing the largest number of sea lions gathered in about 15 years.

ABC7 News has confirmed the large number of sea lions are here because of a huge anchovy run outside the Golden Gate.

When work starts on any one float, the sea lions tend to take off, according to Pier 39. They swim around, sometimes take off and maybe go search for more anchovies. Many have already returned.

Workers say they never herd or shoo the sea lions away -- they take off on their own when work begins.

Only one float was repaired this week.

The harbormaster told us they counted about 1,000 sea lions on the docks - the most they've seen in 15 years.