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Sea lions aren’t super high on the list of aquatic animals surfers usually need to worry about encountering in the water. However, we were treated to a very notable exception courtesy of a man who was hospitalized in California after being attacked by one that was seemingly under the influence of toxic algae.
It goes without saying that sharks are the number one threat when it comes to animals you want to avoid coming across while you’re surfing, and experts seem to agree that most attacks stem from those predators mistaking people on a board for prey like a seal or a sea lion.
Sea lions, on the other hand, are known for being largely playful creatures who usually won’t go out of their way to antagonize people and really only tend to get aggressive if a human is encroaching on their territory.
Unfortunately, a surfer named RJ LaMendola recently endured a harrowing exception to that general rule due to what unfolded off the coast of California earlier this month.
LaMendola hopped on Facebook last week to recount the scary incident that transpired while he was trying to catch some waves off the shores of Oxnard when he was targeted by a sea lion that repeatedly surged out of the water with “teeth bared like some deranged predator” as it staged what he positioned as an unrelenting attack.
The sea lion eventually managed to break through his wetsuit when it chomped down on his buttock as he was frantically paddling back to shore, and it finally relented after LaMendola made it back to the beach before rushing to the emergency room to get treatment for the bloody wound he found himself dealing with.
LaMendola eventually reported the incident to the Channel Islands Marine Wildlife Institute, which told him there’s recently been a rise in similarly concerning behavior linked to Domoic Acid Toxicosis, a neurological ailment spurned by toxic algae blooms that can make sea lions and other animals that are impacted unusually aggressive.
He added it will likely be a while until he heads back into the water, and it’s pretty hard to blame him.