Apparently I’m not the only one who left California for Oregon
Posted on | January 10, 2010 | No Comments
Speaking of El Niño, scientists think that might be a factor in why San Francisco’s famous sea lions have abandoned Pier 39 and maybe, just maybe, headed up to the Oregon coast for a “vacation”. On October 23, 2009, over 1,700 sea lions were counted at their regular hang out (just down the dock from Bubba Gump shrimp, if I remember correctly) but by Thanksgiving, fewer than two dozen of them remained.
Meanwhile, between Yachats and Florence, Oregon, sea lions started showing up in groups so large that no one remembers a population that size.
"Sea lions, identify yourself!" (Image courtesy of OregonLive.com)
So what’s the deal, seal? Are these the Pier 39 sea lions or is this just a remarkable coincidence? According to Bruce Mate, director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport,
California sea lions always cruise through Oregon waters in search of food … Typically they start to arrive in late summer, peak in October, then move on to waters off Washington and British Columbia. But with small, schooling bait fish such as anchovies and sardines abundant off Oregon at the moment, Mate says, the ravenous Californians may simply have selected to stay.
Or, maybe, like a lot of people, they saw the budget problems that California’s been having and they decided to bail before they got furloughed. I can identify with this reasoning 
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