Video: Baby Seal Climbs onto Surfers’ Boards in San Diego
A baby seal surprised surfers in San Diego on Saturday, when it swam through the lineup in Pacific Beach going from surfboard to surfboard.
The pup was abnormally friendly and appeared unafraid of the human surfers, making itself right at home amongst the crowd and even plopping itself on a couple surfboards. And a drone operator was on-hand to catch the moment on video.
Check it out below:
Local news stations, like Fox 5, picked up the footage and reported on the encounter.
According to Fox, nearby SeaWorld was notified about the over-friendly seal pup, and they sent out a crew of experts to make sure the creature was okay.
“There was no need to intervene as the pup also appeared to be old enough to care for itself,” SeaWorld officials reported in a statement.
Surfers in the water reportedly claimed that the seal pup’s mother was dead, however, SeaWorld officials said there were no reports of a dead seal in the area.
In another post (not embeddable here) using the drone footage above, a surfer was seen with the seal on her board. She wrote:
“The most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me ?????????????????????????? never getting rid of this board ?? endlessly grateful to @dronedudeed for being there with me and catching this incredible moment on his cam”
In other sea-creature-meets-surfer news, a sea otter joined a Juneteenth paddle-out up the coast in Santa Cruz, also hopping aboard surfers’ boards.
As always, experts recommend keeping distance when encountering wildlife in the ocean, as it can be dangerous for both the animal and the human.
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