Surfers at Pacific Beach in San Diego recently got an even bigger thrill than catching some gnarly waves when a friendly baby seal began hopping from surfboard to surfboard.
The encounter happened on Saturday, June 17 in the Tourmaline—Pump House area of Pacific Beach. As you can see in the below drone footage obtained by USA Today, the precocious seal climbed onto one surfer's board and floated along contentedly, before making its way around the circle.
Because it's unusual for seals to approach humans that closely in the wild, the surfers reached out to SeaWorld, which then sent a crew out to evaluate the pup, according to San Diego's Fox 5 News. The crew found the seal in the water when they arrived, and noted that by all accounts it appeared healthy.
The rescue team was not able to locate the seal's mother. And although the surfers feared that she may have been killed, SeaWorld said that it had not received any reports of a deceased seal in the area. Since the pup seemed fine, they eventually left it to go in its way.
"There was no need to intervene as the pup also appeared to be old enough to care for itself," a representative for the the theme park told FOX 5 in a statement.
While unusual, it's not entirely unheard of for seals to hop on a passing surfboard. Since the animals are natural prey to sharks, it only makes sense that they would identify potential escape routes. Then again, it's also possible that this seal pup was just having some fun.
from Men's Journal https://ift.tt/kPSL6s5
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