Leopard Seal Attack, South Africa

[Akimbo]

Unusual and not recent, but interesting.

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Leopard seals encounters with divers is relatively rare but they can be quite aggressive.

 

[tridacna]

Same waters as "My Octopus Teacher". I dived there many times - always worried about GWS, not leopard seals. Pretty scary!

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

D@mn.

 

[drrich2]

Wow. I had no idea these things were a hazard outside of Antarctica, or that one would attack 3 divers. The main thing that seemed odd was none of the 3 spear fishermen speared it before it disarmed them. I get that earlier on there was a fear spearing would provoke it into greater violence, but seems like at some point along the way, they'd decide that was just a risk they were going to have to take.

Of course, it's easy to arm chair quarterback from the airconditioned comfort of my computer chair and desk, so this is not a criticism of how they handled themselves, just an observation part of the unfolding story seemed a bit odd to me.

Glad they made it out alive. I've seen photos of one in the past, interacting with an underwater photographer (if offered him freshly-killed penguins); they get huge.

 

[Akimbo]

Sea Lions can also be aggressive, but it is very rare that they attack divers or swimmers as opposed to chasing them away from their "claimed" territory.

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Some of my most memorable dives were playing with sea lion pups off Santa Barbara Island, about 40 miles/65km off the California coast... until momma decided the fun was over.

 

[nippurmagnum]

Sea Lions can also be aggressive, but it is very rare that they attack divers or swimmers as opposed to chasing them away from their "claimed" territory.

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Some of my most memorable dives were playing with sea lion pups off Santa Barbara Island, about 40 miles/65km off the California coast... until momma decided the fun was over.

Underwater, sea lions tend to give warning when you’ve crossed a line with them, they swim perpendicular to you and blow bubbles. I’ve seen that on dives at La Jolla Cove, where sea lion pups were playing with me, until an adult decided it was enough, and started blowing bubbles at me. On the whole, though, they are really playful animals.

 

[drrich2]

Sea Lions can also be aggressive, but it is very rare that they attack divers or swimmers as opposed to chasing them away from their "claimed" territory.

Species matters. I've dove with California and Galapagos sea lions (which, IIRC, are basically the same species in different locations) and a couple of harbor seals. On the shore at San Cristobal Island, though a fence I got an up close and personal look at what I believe was a bull, chilling with his mouth open. That dude was big. I've read bites occasionally happen in California, and are an infection risk.

Some divers on this forum have posted pics of diving with stellar's sea lions, which appear to be roughly the size of bears, and some of whom put their jaws around divers' heads. That...looks too rich for my blood.

And some years back, there was an account of a female elephant seal interacting with some divers, that suddenly turned aggressive and worked them over.

Despite all that, the leopard seal is the one species of pinniped I've read of that sounded like it had real potential to go after humans as prey. It's a species I'd be nervous to encounter in the water.

 

[Akimbo]

On the shore at San Cristobal Island, though a fence I got an up close and personal look at what I believe was a bull, chilling with his mouth open.

I can relate.

Now here's my young and stupid story. I was about 13 and diving same-ocean-buddy solo off the Breakwater in Monterey when I decided it was time to go out and meet some sea lions, who still hang out on the rocks there. So I buy a frozen block of squid, put it in a mesh goody-bag, and start swimming. Visibility was about 10' and I feel this sudden and momentary surge. OK, that's weird but I kept swimming. It happened again. By the third time I noticed this black flash with white teeth and an eyeball. A moment of reevaluating my plan and the squid gets jettisoned and I'm heading back to the beach.

 

[deeper thoughts]

Terrifying

 

[tridacna]

Let’s lighten this up.

A vacationing penguin is driving his car through Arizona when he notices that the oil pressure light is on. He gets out to look and sees oil dripping out of the motor. He drives to the nearest town and stops at the first gas station.

After dropping the car off, the penguin goes for a walk around town. He sees an ice-cream shop and, being a penguin in Arizona, decides that something cold would really hit the spot. He gets a big dish of ice cream and sits down to eat. Having no hands he makes a real mess trying to eat with his flippers. After finishing his ice cream, he goes back to the gas station and asks the mechanic if he's found the problem. The mechanic looks up and says "It looks like you blew a seal."

"No no," the penguin replies, "it's just ice cream."