The sea lions breed each summer off Southern California and northern Mexico, then the males cruise up the Pacific Coast to forage. The mammals were once hunted for their thick fur and their numbers had dropped dramatically, but they have rebounded from 30,000 in the late 1960s to about 300,000 today because of the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Source: Los Angeles Times January 11, 2019 00:45 UTC