{"id":458545,"date":"2026-09-09T19:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458545\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T19:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T19:54:14","slug":"steller-sea-lion-dubbed-beef-buddy-spotted-at-sfs-pier-39","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/458545\/","title":{"rendered":"Steller sea lion dubbed ‘Beef Buddy’ spotted at SF’s Pier 39"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not ‘Chonkers’\u2014Massive sea lion dubbed ‘Beef Buddy’ spotted at San Francisco’s Pier 39<\/p>\n

\"GennaSAN FRANCISCO \u2014<\/p>\n

A massive Steller sea lion, informally nicknamed “Beefy Buddy,” is captivating visitors at San Francisco’s Pier 39, leaving many to wonder whether the famous “Chonkers” has returned.<\/p>\n

The sea lion is more than twice the size of the area’s usual sea lions, drawing big crowds and plenty of online speculation. Wildlife officials, however, have confirmed that this is a different animal. <\/p>\n

“We know he’s a giant sea lion from San Francisco, Pier 39. Just hearing stuff through the grapevine,” one tourist said. <\/p>\n

Officials noted that Steller sea lions can weigh up to 2,500 pounds. Eyewitnesses have reported that the new visitor has a darker coat and a slightly smaller build than Chonkers. <\/p>\n

The harbor master said the bay is full of anchovies and other fish this year, which is bringing in more of these massive visitors looking for a meal.<\/p>\n

See news happening? Send us your photos or videos if it\u2019s safe to do so at kcra.com\/upload<\/a>.<\/p>\n

See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> | Make KCRA a preferred news source in Google<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not ‘Chonkers’\u2014Massive sea lion dubbed ‘Beef Buddy’ spotted at San Francisco’s Pier 39 SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 A massive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[22840,180896,180889,180890,180887,180888,180891,7,124125,180893,180894,76239,124918,143,145,144,180892,44604,101,1914,80085,100265,180895,49603],"class_list":["post-458545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-22840","tag-500-pounds","tag-anchorages","tag-anchovies","tag-beef-buddy","tag-beefy-buddy","tag-big-crowds","tag-california","tag-chonkers","tag-darker-coat","tag-giant-sea-lion","tag-harbor-master","tag-massive-sea-lion","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-online-speculation","tag-pier-39","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-bay","tag-sea-lion","tag-steller-sea-lion","tag-usual-sea-lions","tag-wildlife-officials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458545","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=458545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}