Steller Sea Lion Chonkers Is 3 Times the Size of His Pier 39 Neighbors at 2,000 Pounds
A 2,000-pound Steller sea lion has commandeered a wooden float at San Francisco’s Pier 39, dwarfing the California sea lions around him and pulling tourists into his orbit by the dozens.
His name is Chonkers (some social media users have settled on Chompers), and at roughly three times the size of the California sea lions that typically pile onto Pier 39’s floating docks, he is impossible to miss. Reddit users started posting videos of him back in March, when he was first spotted standing front and center on a platform while the smaller locals kept a respectful distance.
“I wonder what the little guys were thinking. They’re all so cute though,” one commenter wrote. Another summed him up in five words: “That’s one big water dog.”
A TikTok video posted this week shows Chonkers barking, with a crowd gathered around the railing.
“An absolute unit,” one viewer commented.
“Everybody loves a chonker!” said another.
“Saw him a few days ago, people were calling him the king 😂,” a third wrote.
“He’s doing a great job 🥰,” said a fourth.
How Big Is Chonkers?
Adult male Steller sea lions can stretch up to 11 feet long and weigh up to 2,500 pounds, according to NOAA Fisheries — bear-sized animals with thick necks and massive bodies that look almost cartoonish next to the sleeker California sea lions most pier visitors recognize. Stellers run up to three times heavier than their California cousins, and the gap is sharpest among males, where a Steller can weigh well over twice as much.
Pier 39 can host as many as 2,000 sea lions on its floating docks, depending on the season. Those floats, however, were not engineered for an animal of Chonkers’ caliber.
“We’re a pit stop, that’s how we saw ourselves,” Pier 39 harbormaster Sheila Chandor told The Wall Street Journal. “We didn’t build those floats for 2,000-pound animals.”
Why He Showed Up to the Pier
Laura Gill, public programs manager at the Marine Mammal Center, thinks the math is simple.
“There’s just a lot of food right now,” Gill said.
Steller sea lions are opportunistic predators that hunt mostly at night and feed on more than 100 species of fish — Atka mackerel, pollock, salmon and cod among them — plus cephalopods like squid and octopus. Their menu shifts with location and season, and the females in particular carry brutal energy demands, especially in winter, when they may be feeding themselves, nursing a pup and pregnant all at once.
They forage close to shore and far offshore, in shallow benthic environments and out in open water. Some adult females, outside of breeding season, travel far past the continental shelf to find food, while others stay close to land. Their diving ability sharpens with age. Recorded dives have reached depths of roughly 1,400 feet — nearly the height of the Empire State Building, straight down into the dark.
On land, Stellers are intensely social. They pile into tightly packed groups to rest, shed fur, mate, give birth and care for pups. Out at sea, they sometimes drift in large clusters called rafts near rich feeding zones, occasionally lifting their flippers above the surface — flippers lose heat fast, so airing them out is how a sea lion warms back up.
Males, like Chonkers, can migrate long distances across a single season, which suggests his San Francisco residency is temporary. Chandor isn’t expecting him to stick around long.
For now, though, the wooden platform he has claimed at Pier 39 functions less like a float and more like a throne. Smaller sea lions give him space. Tourists raise their phones. Strangers in the comments call him the king — a fitting title for an animal that could weigh as much as a small car and dive deeper than most submarines a tourist will ever ride in.
This article was created by content specialists using various tools, including AI.
