{"id":609910,"date":"2026-04-27T20:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609910\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T20:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T20:28:07","slug":"chonkers-the-large-sea-lion-charms-the-san-francisco-bay-area-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/609910\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Chonkers\u2019 the large sea lion charms the San Francisco Bay area | San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A gigantic 2,000lb Steller sea lion nicknamed \u201cChonkers\u201d has become an unexpected local celebrity after taking up residence in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/san-francisco\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco<\/a> Bay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The massive sea lion swam up to a dock on Pier 39 in San Francisco about a month ago and has remained in the area since, drawing attention from residents, visitors and social media users who have been sharing frequent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sanfrancisco\/comments\/1scft3c\/chonkers_the_stellar_sea_lion_is_back_at_pier_39\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">photos<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/sanfrancisco\/comments\/1slx8g7\/pier_39s_steller_sea_lion_belly_scratch_action\/\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">videos<\/a> of the animal looming over its peers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Chonkers is a much larger breed than the more common California sea lions found in the Bay area, which according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/stellar-sea-lion-pier-39-22088358.php\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Chronicle<\/a> rarely exceed more than 850lb and 7ft in length. According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/species\/steller-sea-lion\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration<\/a>, male Steller sea lions can reach up to 2,500lb and 11ft in length, with a lifespan of 20 to 30 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">While Steller sea lions typically live around Alaska, harbormaster Sheila Chandor told the Chronicle in March that they stray as far as San Francisco \u201cevery few years\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">As many as 2,000 sea lions can often gather on the pier, depending on the time of year. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sfchronicle.com\/sf\/article\/stellar-sea-lion-pier-39-22088358.php\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Chronicle<\/a> reported last month that Chonkers could be seen near the Pier 39 viewing area, and that local harbor officials had described him as a \u201cmorning lark\u201d, advising people to \u201cget to the Pier early\u201d if they wanted to catch a glimpse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A gigantic 2,000lb Steller sea lion nicknamed \u201cChonkers\u201d has become an unexpected local celebrity after taking up residence&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-609910","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}