{"id":453035,"date":"2026-09-04T06:20:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:20:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453035\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T06:20:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:20:23","slug":"chonkers-imitator-appears-at-san-franciscos-pier-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453035\/","title":{"rendered":"Chonkers imitator appears at San Francisco’s Pier 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another\u00a0Steller sea lion has appeared on Pier 39’s K-Dock – but it’s not the San Francisco tourist attraction’s Prius-sized “seal-ebrity” Chonkers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sue Muzzin, a spokesperson for Pier 39, confirmed sightings of the pinniped to SFGATE on Thursday afternoon. “He seems to be a bit smaller,” she said over the phone. “Probably Chonkers’ buddy.”<\/p>\n

The appearance was noteworthy to longtime harbormaster Sheila Chandor<\/a>, who said there have been more sightings of Steller sea lions this year compared with any other year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Usually they come because of food,” Muzzin said of the animals, which dine on mostly anchovy but also herring, capelin and salmon. “They want to feast.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chonkers was first spotted at Pier 39 in March, dwarfing his fellow sunbathers and bringing in crowds of people three rows deep after Reddit users coined his name. The largest of all eared seals, Steller sea lions are known for their bear-like faces and can grow up to 11 feet long and weigh up to 2,500 pounds; by comparison, their California sea lion counterparts grow to just about a third of that size.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FILE<\/p>\n

FILE – Chonkers the Steller sea lion rests on K-Dock in March. (Courtesy of PIER 39)<\/p>\n

Giancarlo Rulli, a spokesperson for the Marine Mammal Center, previously told SFGATE that Steller sea lion sightings at Pier 39 are infrequent but not uncommon. What made Chonkers’ visit particularly unusual was the length of his stay, which lasted about two months. The organization got in on the Chonkers mania and created a plushie<\/a>\u00a0to celebrate his lengthy tenure on the dock. It almost instantly sold out as he drew international headlines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For now, Muzzin said, Pier 39 staff don’t plan to name the new visitor, expecting him to move on within a couple of days. But she hopes the animal draws visitors to the tourist attraction over the holiday weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’ll see if he sticks around,” she said.<\/p>\n

More Local<\/p>\n

– \u00a0OpenAI and Anthropic are ruining San Francisco<\/a>
– \u00a0Gen Z gave Walnut Creek a nickname. It’s sticking.<\/a>
– \u00a0Why ‘everyone is going to know and love’ Bay Area’s newest trail<\/a>
– \u00a0Point Reyes beach closes to the public after fishing boat crash<\/a><\/p>\n

Get\u00a0SFGATE’s top stories sent to your inbox by\u00a0signing up for The Daily newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

This article originally published at Chonkers imitator appears at San Francisco’s Pier 39<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another\u00a0Steller sea lion has appeared on Pier 39’s K-Dock – but it’s not the San Francisco tourist attraction’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[44604,101,103,102,104,106,105,100265],"class_list":["post-453035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-pier-39","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-steller-sea-lion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}