seal – Syndication Server

Watch: Diver witnesses ’rare and exciting’ seal attack on octopus

A diver in Canada captured rare video of a seal attacking an octopus, an encounter that got her heart beating quickly.

The battle occurred near Vancouver Island’s Nanoose Bay in British Columbia. Maxime Veilleux described what she saw to the CBC.

“The seal just zipped by us,” Veilleux told CBC. “We got a little bit closer and it didn’t seem bothered by us at all. We realized it was actually a giant Pacific octopus [and we arrived] right in time to see it all unfold.”

When the seal surfaced to catch a breath, the seal used the opportunity to try to flee, shooting out ink in an attempt to hide its escape. It didn’t work as the seal found the octopus and continued its attack.

“It was pretty rare and very exciting to watch,” Veilleux said. “Our hearts were beating pretty quickly.”

The CBC host reported that the octopus lost a leg in the encounter, but that there was a good chance it survived as it possibly regenerated another leg.

Orca ‘punt’ of sea lion reminiscent of punt for the ages

The recent “punt” of a sea lion by an orca was reminiscent of a scene caught on video 8 years ago, involving perhaps the highest orca punt on record.

On Sunday we shared images of orcas hunting (and “punting“) a sea lion off California. The photos were reminiscent of an extraordinary scene that played out eight years ago, involving an orca that punted a harbor seal 70-80 feet into the air. That story, recalled on this site last month with images and video, is posted below:

Transient orcas off the U.S. West Coast prey on marine mammals and sometimes toss the smaller animals to stun or kill them.

The accompanying images, captured by researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, show a male orca using his flukes to fling a harbor seal an astonishing 70 feet high.

“It’s still the most astounding thing I’ve seen,” Schulman-Janiger, co-founder of the California Killer Whale Project, told FTW Outdoors. “A momentous moment in my life.”

The harbor seal hunt, off Port Angeles in Washington State, occurred eight years ago and Schulman-Janiger shared her images Tuesday as a Facebook memory.

The event was also captured on video and that footage is posted below. (The video description places the height of the seal at 80 feet.)

The orca, or killer whale, belongs to a family cataloged as the TO69s. The standout punter is TO69C, who was about 20 years old at the time. That’s considered a young adult.

Schulman-Janiger described the event on Facebook:

“After three failed attempts, adult male T069C tossed a harbor seal more than 70 feet up into the air – sending it flying wide-eyed above the circling gulls!

“I took five photos after my highest capture, with no seal in sight; lowered my camera, looked for the seal – and saw it splash down next to the submerged orca several seconds later!

“His mom T069 and two siblings were hunting nearby; all enjoyed harbor seal for lunch.”

After the spectacular event, there was debate about the height of the seal at its apex. The 70-foot estimate is considered conservative.

Surfer ‘freaked out’ by seal has leg snapped in two

A 42-year-old man in the U.K. was surfing with a friend Friday when an encounter with a seal ended in a gruesome injury.

Nathan Phillips, described as a local surfing legend, was surfing on a day of powerful waves in Porthleven, Cornwall, when the incident occurred, leaving his leg snapped clean in two, as reported by DevonLive.

Surfer's leg snapped in two in seal attack https://t.co/Wit3MSTu8q

— Devon Live News (@DevonLiveNews) March 6, 2023

Several media outlets reported that the seal attacked him, which simply wasn’t the case. But Phillips seemed to imply by his explanations that he caught a wave to get away from the seal after being “freaked out” by it.

“I had just been paddling out and something started tugging on my leash,” the expectant father told DevonLive. “It kind of freaked me out because I didn’t know what it was. After I worked out that it was a seal and fended it off, it was just playing I think, but a wave crashed down on me just after [that] at a weird angle and sent my board flying into my shin.”

Phillips clarified the incident further when he told ITV News West Country that he “started freaking out” about the seal, took off on a wave and was “in the barrel and then the next thing I know, I hear a big crack and I was underwater.”

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“I remembered my mate saying he thought my board had snapped because of the sound, but then I realized it had been my shin when I felt my foot hitting the back of my leg,” Phillips told DevonLive. “I just started screaming with pain, and my mate dragged me onto his board and told me to start paddling back to shore.”

After getting to shore, he waited 40 minutes before medical personnel arrived.

“It was so painful, and I had to wait even longer in my mate’s van while I waited for an ambulance after I couldn’t fit in the air ambulance,” Phillips said.

CornwallLive reported that the 6-foot-2 surfer was too tall to fit into the Cornwall Air Ambulance helicopter that was smaller than the normal one that is usually used. A couple of hours passed before he was transferred by land ambulance to Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske.

With a baby on the way in five weeks and being a self-employed builder, Phillips was thankful for friends who started a GoFundMe page to help with expenses while he recovers from surgery.

“I’m blown away by how kind my friends are and how beautiful the surf community is down here in Cornwall,” he told CornwallLive.

Watch: Sea lion joins dog in a closely contested game of fetch

Video: Sea lions and dogs share certain traits and among them, it seems, is that both enjoy playing fetch.

Sea lions and dogs share certain traits and among them, it seems, is that both enjoy playing fetch.

The accompanying footage shows a young sea lion watching intently from the shallows as Dave “Nelly” Nelson is about to fling a ball into the surf for his chocolate lab to retrieve.

“He’s very curious,” Nelson observes in the video, anticipating a reaction from the sea lion the moment he releases the ball.

Nelson’s young female lab, Moe, is dancing excitedly near Nelson’s feet, also anticipating the ball’s release.

Once the ball is tossed, it’s a race between pinniped and canine, with the former barking before porpoising rapidly toward the object.

But in a delightfully close competition, Moe bounds into the water and reaches the ball first, and proudly delivers it to the beach.

“She’s pretty quick,” Moe boasted to FTW Outdoors.

The footage was captured last week near 26th Street in Santa Cruz, Calif.

Nelson said the sea lion had been following close to shore as he played fetch with Moe (short for Mokuleia). The sea lion expressed interest in Moe and the game she played with Nelson.

“At one point Moe actually dropped her ball and waded out and they went nose to nose for a second – it was so cute!” Nelson said. “Moe smelled him and he gave a little loving bark and that’s why I pulled my phone out [to capture video footage], because they were totally playing.”

Nelson, a Santa Cruz-based photographer, said Moe and the sea lion continued to play fetch for much of the walk.

“Moe is the local pup down there and the [sea lion] definitely felt the good vibes she puts off,” Nelson said.

Watch: Massive sea creature startles family on Mexican beach

A family enjoying a beach day in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur was frightened by a massive elephant seal that emerged on the shore and approached the group.

The accompanying footage, captured in the municipality of Mulege, shows the blubbery mammal approaching the family as a woman screams and a child tries to remain brave.

News CD Constitution BCS shared no other information, but it appears as though the elephant seal was merely looking for a suitable resting spot.

VIDEO: Dogs ‘have some things to say’ to orcas swimming past dock

Northern elephant seals are the largest “true” seals in the Northern Hemisphere and can weigh as much as 5,000 pounds. Their range includes the eastern and central North Pacific, from Alaska to Baja California.

Except during breeding season from December through March, they spend most of their time feeding at sea. Elephant seals can dive 2,500 feet in search of prey. They feed primarily on squid and fish, including sharks and rays.

Divers ‘fight for their lives’ during relentless leopard seal attack

Three spearfishermen are fortunate to be alive after they were attacked relentlessly Sunday by a leopard seal in South Africa’s False Bay.

Three spearfishermen are fortunate to be alive after a prolonged attack Sunday by a leopard seal in South Africa’s False Bay.

The harrowing ordeal – the seal disarmed the divers and bit them repeatedly – began over a reef more than 400 yards offshore.

According to the National Sea Rescue Institute, two of the men are Jiu Jitsu instructors and one is a Cape Town Municipal Lifeguard. Despite their superb conditioning, they barely prevailed in an exhausting “fight for their lives.”

Jerome Petersen, 50, of Stellenbosch; Joshua Joubert, 40, of Bloubergstrand, and Cameron Vannithing, 24, of Strand, were treated by NSRI and Cape Medical Response personnel after reaching the shore. Their injuries were serious but not life-threatening.

The NSRI, which issued a public safety warning on Tuesday, provided details of the attack in a news release:

“About 400 meters offshore, between Spaniard Rock and Caravan Reef, having reached a reef to begin spearfishing, Jerome dived to the sea bed when he was bitten on the leg by a seal that continued relentlessly biting and bumping the three spearfishermen while they desperately tried to get back to shore.

“The seal snapped and broke off their flippers, disarmed them of their spearguns and caused serious bites, puncture wounds and soft-tissue injuries, scrapes and bruising.

“They fought for over half-an-hour before finally reaching the shore exhausted and bewildered by what had transpired.

“They attribute their survival to years of experience with the sea and their high fitness levels and state-of-the-art equipment that they had with them,” the NSRI stated. “A 5-millimeter wetsuit arguably saved Jerome from fatal injuries.”

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City of Cape Town authorities are monitoring pinniped activity and have warned ocean enthusiasts to be extra cautious.

Leopard seals inhabit Antarctic pack ice but can also be found in South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, and other Southern Hemisphere locations.

They’re large, powerful pinnipeds that hunt warm-blooded prey, including other seals. Attacks on humans are rare but have occurred.

According to the New Zealand Department of Conservation, at least one human fatality has been attributed to a leopard seal attack.

–Leopard seal image is generic

Orca ‘punts’ seal 40 feet in rare event caught on camera

Orca ‘punts’ seal 40 feet straight up in a rare event caught on camera.

Whale watchers off British Columbia, Canada, watched in awe Sunday as an orca used its fluke to fling a seal perhaps 40 feet above the surface.

“They were amazed and excited, and I think they knew this was not something we see every day,” Capt. Andrew Lees, owner of Five Star Whale Watching, told For The Win Outdoors. “I think they knew it was special from my reaction.”

The charter aboard Salish Shadow encountered two transient orcas – a mother and son catalogued as the T10s – Sunday afternoon off Vancouver Island near Victoria. The 21-year-old son is the orca shown “punting” the seal in Lees’ images.

The seal did not survive the landing and ultimately was devoured.

Lees said the orcas also breached and slapped their tail flukes as the predatory event occurred.

Transient orcas prey on marine mammals and are known to play with their food in possible teaching events to benefit younger pod members. Batting or flinging mammals high into the air is a method of stunning or killing prey.

While it’s rarely witnessed, such dramatic events have been documented.

In October 2015, also off Victoria, an adult transient orca catalogued as T69C tossed a harbor seal 70 feet into the air.

That incident was captured on video by a production company, and displayed in photographs by California-based researcher Alisa Schulman-Janiger, who was on the cruise.

“Our highlight was a harbor seal predation by Bigg’s (transient) orcas, the T69s,” Schulman-Janiger wrote. “After three attempts, adult male T69C tossed a harbor seal well over 70 feet straight up into the air – sending it flying among the gulls!” Schulman-Janiger wrote.