Dock 55 Landing sits at 13701 Fiji Way, a few steps from Fisherman's Village. Its channel side is where authorized charter boats load passengers. Its seawall side is a free dinghy dock for boats up to 12 feet, open 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. with a four-hour limit. According to LA County's own harbor studies, it is also one of the places California sea lions most like to haul out in Marina del Rey.
The County's newest drawing for the harbor puts a floating dock built only for those animals right beside it.
The Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors lists the Marina del Rey Pinniped Dock on its development projects page. The page describes a dedicated floating home for seals and sea lions near Fisherman's Village. The County gives three goals: give the animals a safe haul-out of their own, cut down on crowding and disturbance across the harbor, and create a spot where the public can watch them. The project comes out of public feedback, and it reverses the County's earlier approach. For years the question was how to move the sea lions along. The draft plan picks the spot they already chose and builds for them there.
What the August Drawing Actually Shows
The site plan is a single draft sheet labeled "Pinniped Floating Dock, Marina del Rey." It was prepared under Moffatt & Nichol project number 11158-06 and is dated August 24, 2026. It shows a rectangle 56 feet long and 27 feet wide next to existing Floating Dock 55. That's 1,512 square feet of dock surface, with a total footprint of 1,848 square feet. The sheet also marks guide piles and a 45-foot fairway width.
The size is the story. The idea first appeared in the County's July 2019 Pinniped Management Plan, which called for a sanctuary dock of at least 25 by 25 feet. The closest local precedent is in King Harbor.
| Size | Stated capacity | Source year | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 County sanctuary concept, Marina del Rey | 25 by 25 feet or larger, a 625 sq. ft. minimum | 60 to 80 sea lions | 2019 |
| King Harbor sea lion barge, Redondo Beach | 700 sq. ft. | Up to 116 sea lions | 2015 |
| 2026 draft pinniped dock, Marina del Rey | 56 by 27 feet, 1,512 sq. ft. | Not stated | 2026 |
The 2019 plan set 25 by 25 feet as a minimum, and the draft is more than twice that baseline. It also gives the animals more than twice the deck Redondo Beach floated into King Harbor's main channel in June 2015, as the Daily Breeze reported at the time. That barge was designed to pull sea lions away from boats and marina infrastructure. The County's 2019 plan used a photo of that King Harbor dock to show what a sanctuary looks like.
Why Dock 55, and Why Now
The location follows directly from the County's 2019 survey work. Counts taken in April, May and June 2019 found 45 to 95 California sea lions in the harbor each day. Nearly 80% were sub-adults or young adults, large males were around 5 to 10%, and no pups were seen. The plan put the harbor's population at 50 to 100 animals at any given time. It found them gathered along the main channel and at the heads of the basins, and it named the County transient docks, Dock 55 and Anchorage 47 as the most-used sites.
Dock 55 is a working dock, used mainly to board fishing and sightseeing visitors onto commercial charters. In 2019 the County's answer there was physical. The plan recommended adding bull rails and looked at PVC poles and lines and spiked matting to keep animals off.
The same plan explains why that approach has limits. It lists damage to docks and vessels, human-safety concerns and fecal material as the main conflicts. It also warns that deterrents on County docks can push sea lions onto private docks and boats. Its sanctuary section says most sea lions would likely stay in the harbor whatever deterrents were installed. They would move from one spot to the next, and the County could clear its own docks only to shift the problem onto other harbor residents.
That reasoning puts the sanctuary where the animals already gather, beside Dock 55. Today the County's project page says seals and sea lions crowd docks, vessels and waterways throughout the harbor, citing "recent surveys."
What Is Still Blank on the Page
The drawing settles where the dock would go and how big it would be. The County's project entry gives no budget, no construction dates, no permit status and no public comment period. It links only to the site plan.
The 2019 plan put a price on its smaller concept: about $30,000 for first-year planning, permitting, construction and maintenance, less than $1,000 a year in upkeep before labor, and roughly $5,000 to replace the system every seven to ten years. Those figures were for a concept built around a 25-by-25-foot minimum. They don't carry over to the 2026 proposal.
The public venue to watch is the County's Small Craft Harbor Commission. Its October 14, 2026 meeting was canceled, and the commission page lists a November agenda as the next posting.
The Dock Joins a Fiji Way Already Under Revision
The sea lion dock is one of several County projects reworking the Fiji Way and Mindanao Way waterfront over the next year. They share a pattern: older facilities are being replaced with versions designed for public access and accessibility.
- Boat Launch Ramp, 13477 Fiji Way. The County plans to replace the aging dock system, add an accessible queuing dock next to the ramps, install stormwater features, and slurry-seal and restripe the parking lot. Construction was expected to begin at the start of fall 2026 and finish in summer 2027. As of late October, the development page still lists it under upcoming projects.
- Lot 4 parking structure, Admiralty Way at Mindanao Way. The lot near the Visitor Center has been closed since December 1, 2025, while crews build a three-level garage and surface lot with 368 spaces. It will be open 24 hours, with pay-and-display stations, EV charging and a civic art piece by FreelandBuck shaped like abstracted sails along the Mindanao Way side. The County's project timeline shows construction through December 2026, while its groundbreaking release said late fall 2026.
- Parcel 77 Dock Replacement. The County is replacing this small-craft dock with a new concrete system for kayaking, rowing and sailing, with an ADA-compliant gangway. It is in plan check, with construction anticipated in late 2027.
- Marina "Mother's" Beach, 4101 Admiralty Way. Already finished. Upgrades completed July 2, 2026 include an expanded restroom and office, more dry boat storage, picnic shelters, grills, a promenade and a beach access mat.
The pinniped dock fits that list in one specific way. The County describes it as a viewing area as well as a haul-out. That would give the main channel near Fisherman's Village a public attraction built around the harbor's most visible residents.
Parade Night on a Harbor Still Under Construction
The first big test of this half-built waterfront comes while the garage, the launch ramp and the sea lion dock are all unfinished. The 64th Annual Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade is Saturday, December 12, 2026, rain or shine, centered on Burton Chace Park.
- 4 to 6 p.m.: Voices of Christmas roaming carolers
- 4 to 8 p.m.: food trucks, a photo booth and a kids art corner
- 5:45 to 6 p.m.: Holiday Light Show, subject to weather
- 6 to 8 p.m.: Holiday Boat Parade
During the light show, no vessel may be in the restricted security zone in the Main Channel between Basins B and H. The County notes the best views of the show are from outside that zone. The parade page says Lot 4 will stay closed, which takes the newest garage on the map out of play for the year's busiest night. The County's parade-night rates run from $5 at Lots 5 and 8 to $15 for cars with trailers at Lot 2 by the boat launch ramp. Lot 1 at Fisherman's Village is $8. The County expects heavy traffic around the Marina. It points people to the Marvin Braude Coastal Bike Trail and warns of long rideshare waits.
Between now and then, Burton Chace Park at 13650 Mindanao Way has a weekly schedule. Neighborhood Game Night runs Tuesdays from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., with dates listed through December 1. Sandy Brushes drawing and watercolor classes meet Wednesdays from 5 to 6:30 p.m., listed through December 2. The County's anchorage map also lists the free four-hour guest docking for boaters coming in by water.
The next official word on the sea lion dock will likely come through a Small Craft Harbor Commission agenda, and that is where a budget, a schedule or a comment period would first appear.
If you own near the main channel or the basins and want to know how a year of County projects along Fiji Way and Mindanao Way could shape your property's value, The Dutchover Team follows these harbor changes closely. Get a Free Home Valuation and we'll walk you through what's being built near your address.
