"Charismatic mega-fauna" return

I LIKE BIG MAMMALS AND I CANNOT LIE: Keeping your distance, though? A good idea.

Barking California sea lions covered the breakwater at the Hulks beach when Fishery Officer Bill van Egteren posted warning signs there on November 20. Don't harass the sea lions; keep your distance, read the signs.

The transient pinnipeds first showed up in 2018, and didn't return last year. So Bill and his team were surprised to see them here mid-November. When he returned to the Hulks three days later, he was especially surprised that there were so many more.

"They've gotta be pushing 1,000," Bill said, noting that hundreds lolled on the beach, swam in the log boom, and continued to occupy the breakwater. "There must be a food source that's drawing them here. Herring, maybe? This is not a breeding party; it's not mating season, and there are no pups. It seem like an odd haulout spot compared to a rocky island."

California sea lions are smaller than Powell River's large "bob"of resident Stellar sea lions, which reliably sit on the barges near the mill.

Bill said he isn't sure exactly where these visitors are from, but guesses they may swim up from the Columbia River estuary on the Washington-Oregon border. Sea lions, he said, do swim up rivers, following the fish.

"I like them," said Bill, who worked in Mission previously and saw sea lions near his office on the Fraser River. "They are charismatic mega-fauna. People are always drawn to large animals. But keep your distance."