The boats lining Fisherman’s Wharf today are descendants of the Italian fishermen that dominated the Bay Area coastline from the Gold Rush days onward to the turn of the century. A good fishing trip those days brought in $2 – $5, when a loaf of bread cost five cents. The enclosed harbor made an excellent fish-catching and processing spot, and these fishermen were the first founders of what came to be one of the city’s great attractions.

On this day, October 4, in 1977, Pier 39, known as a gathering place of sea lions, opened at Fisherman’s Wharf.

The sea lions used to gather over at Seal Rock outside the harbor but by 1989 moved to Pier 39, sparking a row between boat owners and conservationists, which the boat owners lost — with help from the tourists that began gathering to look at the animals. The more boats that cleared out from the pier, the more sea lions came to take over the empty space. As many as 1,700 of them came out on Thanksgiving week of 2009 — perhaps sea lions observe the holiday too?