The Stellar sea lion, nicknamed Chonkers, who has been hanging around the sea lion docks by Pier 39 for the last month, continues to capture both regional and national attention.

He arrived about six weeks ago, and he did not yet have a name. The massive, 2,000- to 2,500-pound male Stellar sea lion stood out among the much smaller (by a third) California sea lions who frequent the sunbathing docks near Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39. KGO first reported his appearance on March 13, and it seems like he likes what he sees and decided to take an extended stay in the Bay.

KGO reports now that this male, Chonkers, is one of two Stellar sea lions currently in the Bay, but it's unclear where the other one is, or if people have only been seeing the same one by Pier 39.

The Wall Street Journal picked up the story of Chonkers this week, featuring video of him taking up a lot of space on one of the floating docks and noticeably tipping it in his direction while basking with the other sea lions. And People Magazine is covering him too.

At it seems the name might have come from jokes on Reddit, where his first appearances were publicized, and where one commenter quipped he was of the species "Chonkus Maximus."

And tourists have apparently delighted in catching his leaps onto the docks, which generally cause a ruckus and send other sea lions flopping into the water.

"We didn’t build those floats for 2,000-pound animals," says Sheila Chandor, harbormaster for the Pier 39 marina, speaking to the Journal. Chandor adds that other Stellar sea lions have occasionally stopped by, but never for this long. "We’re a pit stop, that’s how we saw ourselves," she says.

The sea lion congregation at these docks dates back to just after the Loma Prieta earthquake, as longtime San Franciscans like to recount. Prior to that, as the Marine Mammal Center's Laura Gill tells the Journal, "It used to be full boat slips where people had their boats parked. But one sea lion told another sea lion…" and soon the place was silly with sea lions — basking, free of shark threats, and with plenty of food around nearby.

The floating docks themselves were added over time to keep the sea lions from invading the docks that people and boats still use, which they still sometimes do.

Gill suggests that the reason Chonkers has stuck around is that there is "plenty of food right now" in the Bay, and he's just been sitting pretty.

Top image via Pier 39