Santa Cruz sea lions squeezed into tighter quarters by wharf collapse, but excellent viewing remains

Barking, roaring, gargling, grunting, squealing, squabbling, flopping, wriggling, snoozing and occasionally vomiting on each other, the sea lions of the Santa Cruz Wharf provide a noisy, fish-scented spectacle that in the wake of the structure’s partial collapse in December is now harder — but only slightly — to take in.

When a cataclysmic ocean swell shortened the popular tourist attraction by the length of half a football field, it ripped away a substantial portion of prime lounging-around habitat for the sleek-but-portly sea lions that have for decades used the network of horizontal support beams between the ocean and the wharf deck as a haul-out spot.

And the five large rectangular openings in the deck that used to provide views down onto the support beams were all in the portion that fell off and was swept away by huge swells that surged into Monterey Bay on Dec. 23.

Still, the sea lions and one excellent viewing spot remain, where on recent visits some two dozen of the seafood-gobbling marine mammals lay cheek-by-jowl and heaped in tawny piles on the skeletal remains of a defunct boat landing on the east side of the wharf, near Stagnaro Bros. seafood restaurant.

“I was so surprised to see them all right here,” said Brooke Andrews, 20, a movie-theater worker from the Central Valley who visited the wharf last week. She used to come to the wharf most summers as a child, and after the collapse, had wondered about the sea lions’ fate.

Below Andrews on the former boat landing, sea lions flopped out on nearly every inch of beam, and in many cases lay on each other. A group of more than a dozen others floated nearby in what’s known as a raft, while young sea lions cavorted, playfully leaping from the water and re-entering with the grace of a competitive diver.

“They’re really cute,” Andrews said.

A spot on the other side of the wharf near outdoor seating for Makai Island Kitchen & Groggery now provides the second-best location for watching sea lions.

Former City of Santa Cruz wharf supervisor Jon Bombaci estimates that the ocean took about a third of the portion of wharf used by sea lions, but because that part contained many more horizontal beams, the animals lost about half their resting space.

But wildlife experts say Santa Cruz’s sea lions are fine, despite more-cramped quarters.

“Sea lions are very adaptable,” said Giancarlo Rulli, spokesman for Sausalito-based The Marine Mammal Center, a rescue and research organization serving 600 miles of California’s coast, plus Hawaii.

“Sea lions tend to make their way and find their way in terms of carving out space for themselves,” he said.

There have been no reports of increased sea lion numbers at other locations that would suggest the wharf damage caused displacement, Rulli added.

Now, said Rulli, about 250,000 to 300,000 sea lions inhabit the California coast. When they aren’t out foraging for fish and sometimes crabs, they lie around to warm up, rest and sleep in places like the Santa Cruz Wharf, Pier 39 in San Francisco, Año Nuevo Island, Moss Landing and San Carlos Beach in Monterey, Rulli said.

Bombaci said he has seen up to 400 at the Santa Cruz Wharf before the collapse, though the typical number for much of the year is closer to 200. Strong winter storms and reductions in local food supply mean the number can drop to a few dozen at times, Rulli said. In May and June, sexually mature males head southward to the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara to breed, and return to the wharf around August, Rulli said.

The animals have been frequenting the wharf since at least 1962, but because the population was low, they were much less common than today, Bombaci said. Before the Marine Mammal Act, commercial fisherman in Santa Cruz saw sea lions as “direct competitors for their livelihood” and sometimes shot them, Bombaci said.

Now, people from all over come to observe them.

“It’s amazing. To get out and see this is really cool,” said Lisa Bos, 50, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit executive who read about the wharf’s sea lions while on a work trip to San Jose, and drove to Santa Cruz on Monday. “I didn’t expect to see so many and for them to be so vocal. It’s a unique experience.”

What shape the wharf will take in the future as a tourist attraction, local amenity and sea lion habitat has been cast into uncertainty by the collapse. Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley said earlier he was “very concerned” another big storm could cause a second collapse, and that any rebuilding of the end of the wharf would require “a very serious conversation” about risk. The city’s parks director, Tony Elliot said the tip of the remaining wharf structure is damaged, but an engineering check showed the rest appeared as strong as it had been before the giant swells hit in December.

Meanwhile, Scotts Valley real estate company co-owner Mandy Draper, 40, who swims around the wharf regularly, will continue to walk on top of it from time to time to see the sea lions she has been visiting since her youth.

“They’re a local treasure,” Draper said.