A big problem in the city of Valdivia southern Chile, becomes a big tourist attraction. Sea lions weighing up to 2,000+ pounds recently discovered that the fish market along the river was a great place for a free lunch. That is not really the problem however. The problem is when they decide to take walking tours of downtown Valdivia. The city of Valdivia had a good solution to this big problem.

The big males can easily out weigh a compact car, and if they were hit by even a large truck there might be a question about which would survive. This is besides their tendency to be very territorial and not terribly receptive to paparazzi tourist photographers.

The creative solution the local Valdivia city came up was to put them to work for the tourist industry. Two large rafts were places in the river directly across from the fish market with markers to keep the boats from approaching the rafts too close. Tourist line up every evening to take photos of the sea lions as they sun themselves on the rafts wait for dinner to be served from the market.

The sea lions seem to be fine with this arrangement as long as the fish scraps from the market are promptly washed in to the river every evening. Among the other wildlife that come to the market are hawks, sea gulls, other fish, and much more. All are just feet from the shore as they fight over the scraps that are blasted out of the market every evening with a fire hose. Still, everyone gets out of the way of the largest male.

We give two thumbs up to this solution by the city of Valdivia. Make those monsters work for their lunch!!!