They're big, loud and smelly — and they have taken over San Francisco's touristy Pier 39.

In recent days, some 1,100 to 1,200 anchovy-breathed, blubber-bodied sea lions have been counted flopping on and around the docks, Harbormaster Sheila Chandor said Tuesday. That's the highest number recorded in 15 years.

The pinnipeds — who are cruising from as far north as southeastern Alaska down to the Channel Islands for mating season — have swarmed the pier in such large numbers because of a massive school of anchovies swimming near the Farallon Islands.

"There's a feast going on out there right now," Chandor said.

The marine mammals, with their big eyes and long whiskers, have long been welcomed at Fisherman's Wharf, where tourists can't seem to get enough of them.

They first started hauling out at Pier 39 in 1989. Boats had been moved out of their slips while the docks were being remodeled, leaving lots of space for sea lions in search of a place to rest.

They started coming en masse after the San Francisco Bay Area was rocked that October by the Loma Prieta earthquake, which killed at least 63 people and caused more than $6 billion in damage. By January 1990, more than 150 sea lions swarmed the docks, drawing tourists who had avoided the area for months after the earthquake.

"The first showed up when we needed a boost, because we had just gone through the earthquake ... and we were dying on the vine, with no business," said Chandor, who has worked at the pier since 1985. "It totally revitalized all the business on the wharf."

The pier typically has a few hundred sea lions, with up to 700 or so in the spring, Chandor said.

The current, giant herd, which seems to be growing by the day, started showing up in late April, she said.

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