Sea Lion Radio brings Seattle's barks, bleats and yaps to the world
A retired tech worker named Chris Mills has launched SeaLionRadio.org, an online station that broadcasts a 24/7 loop of sea lion vocalizations recorded in Seattle. The project serves as a personal tribute to the local wildlife he enjoys hearing from his home.
Why it matters
It highlights the intersection of personal passion, technology, and community-driven digital archiving of local environmental sounds.
Is it Pike Place fishmongers hawking salmon? The roar of hydros and the Blue Angels? The unnerving crinkle of wrinkly Gore-Tex? The thwack, thrum and hiss of an espresso shot? Distorted guitar and grungy angst?
For Chris Mills, the city sounds like sea lions.
From maybe October through June, Mills’ west Ballard home is overcome — overwhelmed? — by barks, bleats, calls, yaps and cries. The sea lions of Shilshole Bay scream at everything, all the time. At boats, at each other, at the wind, the waves, the world.
The wails waft up the hillside , carried by the breeze and by hundreds of pounds of pinniped vocal power.
To some, they’re incessant. To Mills, incandescent.
“I hear them when I go to bed and I hear them when I wake up,” Mills said. “I love the sound.”
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