Sea Lions Come Roaring Back : Wildlife: Once near extinction, they are wreaking havoc in and out of the water in Monterey and other coastal communities.

California sea lions, once hunted to the brink of extinction, have made such a comeback that they are becoming a nuisance here and in other coastal communities.

Nowhere is the problem more acute than in this scenic resort, where sea lions have invaded a city marina and, in the process, sunk an old tugboat, damaged docks, broken water mains and trapped a boat owner in his vessel. One of the bolder animals, lounging on a dock, even bit a German shepherd that ventured too close.

“It’s getting worse by the week,” said Carl Anderson, public facilities director for Monterey. “In fact, it’s getting worse by the day.”

Environmentalists and biologists consider the resurgence of the California sea lion a heartening success story in their often disappointing efforts to conserve marine mammals. By contrast, the Steller’s sea lion, a relative of the California sea lion that is most often found from San Francisco north to Alaska, is plummeting in number, possibly because fishing has depleted its food source.

To fishermen, boat owners and city officials here, the wholesale recovery of the California sea lion is no cause for celebration. About 1,400 of the animals make their home in Monterey Bay, and because of their girth--males weigh as much as 800 pounds--they can be highly destructive.

“They are dirty and a little aggressive,” said Brooks Bowhay, Monterey harbor master. “They will chase you. You go down to the dock and try to get into your boat, and they won’t move or else they will move toward you.”

For years, sea lions had confined themselves to rocks near the breakwater. They began moving into the marina about two years ago, at first just a couple at a time, and eventually by the dozens. Anderson said more and more of the animals climb atop the docks every day.

“Three weeks ago, I went out and counted 18 (on the docks),” Anderson said. “Last Monday, I counted 50.”

California sea lions, hunted largely for the oil derived from their blubber, had dwindled to a population of less than 1,000 by 1927. Even after commercial sea lion hunting later declined, fishermen often killed the mammals when they interfered with their catch.

Since 1972, the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act has prohibited the taking, injuring or harassment of sea lions and other marine mammals. Today, there are an estimated 145,000 California sea lions along the West Coast, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Federal officials credit the 1972 law for the comeback and largely attribute the problems in Monterey to tourists who feed the animals. A new federal regulation will ban such feeding next year, and federal officials have urged the city to pass an ordinance prohibiting the sale of sea lion food on the harbor in the interim.

Anderson said that merchants on the wharf earn as much as $50,000 a year from such sales, and he argues that banning feeding is not the answer.

“It’s just more comfortable for them on a dock,” he said of the sea lions. “Wouldn’t you rather lie on a nice wooden dock than on a rock?”

Merchants and fishermen tend to agree. “There aren’t more than 10 that come and beg for food, and they are the lazy suckers,” said Tim Sullivan, 41, skipper of a party boat. “Most of them work for a living.”

Many fishermen believe there is an overpopulation of sea lions and advocate the return of hunting of the mammals. The fishermen complain that the sea lions swim alongside their boats and snatch salmon from their lines.

Weathered wooden signs with pictures of sea lions wearing bibs and holding a fork in one flipper and a fish in the other advertise the sale of anchovies and other sea lion foods along the wharf.

On a recent day, a man with two young children flung an anchovy at the mammals from the wharf. Screeching sea gulls and pelicans descended on him and the food, but two dozen barking sea lions on a dock several yards away ignored the commotion and the anchovy.

“I wish someone would run off these birds instead of the sea lions,” a woman muttered as the birds swooped over her head when the fish was thrown.

In San Francisco, hundreds of the mammals invaded the Pier 39 tourist attraction in January and destroyed a dock. Federal fishery officials said the sea lions had been lured into San Francisco Bay by an unusually large herring run and predicted they would forsake the pier when mating season began.

The sea lions left in June, migrating to the Channel Islands off Santa Barbara for mating, but they returned two months later. The initial dismay over the noise, smell and damage brought by the animals has given way in some quarters to jubilation over the tourists--and revenue--that the animals have brought to Pier 39.

“We’re now so happy that we’re making accommodations for them,” said Alicia Vargas, a spokeswoman for the tourist complex.

Boats have been removed from the damaged dock, and it has been turned over to the animals. Pier authorities have even brought in new docks to give the animals more resting places, and the pier boasts about the sea lions in its promotional brochures.

Near Seattle, where the sea lions are decimating steelhead trout, a truce has yet to be reached. Federal officials recently captured many of the animals and transported them south to California. But the sea lions were back within weeks.

The animals are just as persistent in Monterey, where their barking resounds throughout the harbor. Officials have tried to deter them with ultrasonic noise devices and by banging garbage cans and using high-pressure hoses, but the animals return as soon as the racket stops.

City officials contend that the only man the animals respect is Darrell Cowart, 56, a slightly built harbor maintenance worker whose job it is to wash the docks.

“I have an aggressive attitude, like a cop,” Cowart said. “They will challenge you, occasionally lunge at you. My attitude is this is my territory, and I’m in charge here. They’re like dogs. They sense if you are afraid.”

Cowart may be brave, but he is not foolhardy. Approaching the docks to hose them off, he stopped by a shed to pick up a broom. “I’m not going to go down there empty-handed,” he said.

With a broom nowhere in sight, he grabbed a hose and a plunger. “OK, as long as I have something in my hand,” he muttered.

About 20 of the animals were lounging on the dock as Cowart approached. They took no notice until he was almost among them, waving the plunger before him. One by one, the barking sea lions waddled off into the water. Several yelped in protest.

Swimming along the dock’s edge, their whiskered faces peering out of the water, the animals waited for Cowart to depart. A few refused to be intimidated. As soon as Cowart was two or three feet away, they heaved themselves back onto the dock and onto a small barge, yawning and scratching and eyeing the intruder until he sprayed them with his hose.

“I’ve taken charge here,” Cowart said confidently.

City officials say they are counting on the National Marine Fisheries Service to help them find a humane way to discourage the animals from living in the marina, where the docks and some boats are smeared with their feces and damage to city property is estimated at $40,000. Joseph Cordaro, wildlife biologist for the service, said the city should take the first step by banning the feeding of the animals.

Cordaro said the California sea lion population is “healthy” but not excessive. He estimated that the species is growing in number by 3% to 5% a year.

While city officials await help from scientists, the public has been making suggestions. “We’ve had people say we should pipe in killer whale sounds in the water or do a mock-up of a killer whale,” said harbor master Bowhay.

Anderson, whose city responsibilities include the marina, said public sentiment is emotional, with many citizens defending the sea lions because they were here before humans, and others demanding that something be done to rid the docks of the beasts.

He admits that city officials are at a loss about what to do next.

“When a dog is bad, you spank it,” he said. “You don’t spank an 800-pound sea lion.”