(from Salon.com)
. . . In the most frightening of the recent episodes, a rogue sea lion bit 14 swimmers this month and chased 10 more out of the water at San Francisco's Aquatic Park, a sheltered lagoon near the bay. At least one victim suffered puncture wounds.
In Southern California in June, a sea lion charged several people on Manhattan Beach and bit a man before waddling into the water and swimming away. In Berkeley, a woman was hospitalized last spring after a sea lion took a chunk out of her leg.
Last year, a group of sea lions took over a Newport Beach marina and caused a vintage 50-foot yacht to capsize when they boarded it. And a lifeguard in Santa Barbara was bitten three times while swimming off El Capitan State Beach.
In Alaska, a huge sea lion jumped onto a fisherman's boat in 2004, knocked him overboard and pulled him underwater; he escaped without serious injury. . .
We are living in very dangerous times, people. Exercise extreme caution around large marine mammals. They want their planet back.
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11 comments:
Yikes! I may let them have it back, their teeth are sharper than mine.
yippee! an animal uprising. i've been waiting for this. the NY Times magazine did a big story a few months ago on elephant trauma that sounds very much like sea lion charging.
thanks for sharing your wild and precious life.
coming out of a lurker-mode,
swampgrrl
I LOVE This!!
Yay! For the Sea lions!
I think I'd do the same thing if I was a sea lion! :)
And tonight on the Discovery Channel..."When Pinnipeds Ruled The Earth".
he he...gosh, and I love sea lions too! A first hello to you!
I wanted to let you know that I found some of your wonderful treats at the Kennedy School gift shop this past weekend and bought one for my Mom and one for me. I was so TICKLED to find them! ~grin~
You think they'd settle for us just treating the planet better? On this morning's news (I was not bothering myself with news last night), an alligator took off a man's arm near Lakeland, and an Orca pulled a guy underwater by holding onto his arm at a sea world type of joint somewhere. It ain't just the mammals that are mad. Well, in its defense, I'd have to say the gator probably wasn't mad, just hungry.
Hi Laini, This post really effected me. I was at Santa Cruz Wharf last weekend and was admiring these amazing creatures. Got some pictures too (and post one). We cannot be reminded enough that these are wild animals and must be treated with cautious respect.
Go Team Sea Lion!!!!!!!
~bluepoppy
I used to visit the ones at Fisherman's Wharf and even then they were rather aggressive. Perhaps they're tired of being boxed into small spaces and having their water polluted...more signs of climate change, I'm afraid.
When I was a teenager, I worked as an usher at the dolphin show at Canada's Wonderland. The opening act was a pair of sea lions: Mr. Big and Sweet Marie. One of the big important jobs that you could have as an usher was going backstage to get the chocolate bars that were given out during the show. And we were warned repeatedly to stay far clear of the sea lions because there was no doubt they would bite! I always took their word for it.
I don't blame them one bit!
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