As we were walking across Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco recently, I noticed this brightly colored status of a seal in front of the SkyStar Ferris Wheel:

I had to stop and get a better look at it, as it was much less noisy, smelly and likely to move than the sea lions you’d usually see on Pier 39:

It turns out that this statue is actually of a sea lion too (my bad), and it’s one of 30 such statues that were placed (mostly) along Embarcadero in 2020 for the 30-year anniversary of the sea lions “invading” Pier 39 after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989:

map of seal statues (Paul Nakamoto/Aquarium of the Bay)

For more details about these statues, read the SFGate article on why 30 sea lions popped up around San Francisco in 2020.

I was mostly drawn to the circle if colorful, numbered icons that this specific statue has on its chest. I couldn’t quickly find any more info on this though, so if anyone knows what they mean - hit me up on the links at the top of this page 🔝.

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Update: It turns out those numbered icons are Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that were adopted by the United Nations back in 2015 to end poverty, reduce inequality and build more peaceful, prosperous societies by 2030. You can find more about these goals and the progress on the UNICEF site: Using data to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for children.

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