At Moss Landing, viral Sea Lion video is a reminder to back off from wild animals

The alarming video of a young girl in British Columbia getting dragged into the water by a sea lion is serving as a reminder in Moss Landing, home to hundreds of sea lions, to not get too close to wild animals.

“It’s a very graphic lesson, and that’s probably why it’s gone viral because it’s horrifying and people think ‘what if that happened to my little child or my family?'” Moss Landing Harbormaster Linda McIntyre said.

The terrifying video, which now has more than six million views on YouTube, shows the Sea Lion first lunge within inches of the little girl’s face. It seems like a friendly move, and the girl laughs. A few seconds later, the sea lion lunges again — grabbing the girl and yanking her backwards into the water. A man, who witnesses think was a relative, jumped in after her and bystanders pull them to safety. No one was hurt.

Witness say some people in the video were feeding the sea lion before it grabbed the girl, something McIntyre says should never be done by the public.

“Of course, if we see animals the natural inclination, because we are human and have hearts, is to feed them,” McIntyre said. “(But) it’s a violation of the law to feed them.”

At the Moss Landing Harbor, there are several signs warning people about the dangers of sea lions. The area is also surrounded by a locked gate and only open to boaters. However, McIntrye says there are tourists who come in and try to take pictures alongside the massive animals.

“We have seen people go up to sleeping sea lions, these people want to have their picture taken with wild animals,” said McIntrye, “Sea Lions can swim fast and a lot of people don’t realize they can outrun you, they don’t have feet but they can maneuver themselves faster than humans.”

The harbor has had issues with sea lions in the past. The animals weigh down the docks and cost the harbor about $100,000 a year to fix. The harbor has tried a few different things to get the sea lions to leave including adding motion water sprayers and inflatable air dancers to work like scarecrows, so far, nothing has worked.

“We have tried everything you can possibly imagine, everything legally that we are allowed to do” said McIntrye. “They get used to everything.”

Nothing like what happened in British Columbia has occurred at Moss Landing, but boater Tim Reynolds says just this weekend he had a run-in of his own with sea lion bull.

“The bulls are very aggressive,” Reynolds said, “so the females left but the bull came at me and I just jumped back as fast as I could.”