Tourist look at the few remaining sea lions at Pier 39 in San Francisco, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. More than a thousand sea lions holding court on a pier in San Francisco Bay to the delight of tourists are now largely gone, and experts believe they left in search of food. (AP Photo/Russel A. Daniels)

Famous San Francisco sea lions may have turned up near Oregon

ASSOCIATED PRESS
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

SAN FRANCISCO - More than 1,500 sea lions that abruptly disappeared from San Francisco's Pier 39 may have gone 500 miles north to the central Oregon coast.

Officials with Sea Lion Caves, a private preserve near Florence, Ore., say huge pods of the animals - now numbering about 2,000 - began showing up in October, about the same time they started leaving Pier 39.

Kim Suryan, a biologist with the Marine Mammal Institute in Newport, Ore., says the numbers are much higher than usual.

About 1,700 sea lions were counted at Francisco's Pier 39 in October before they began leaving in droves after Thanksgiving.

Experts say it's strange for so many animals to be at the pier in the first place and then leave so suddenly.

They say the sea lions may have gone north for colder waters and food and could eventually return.

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle

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