In a desperate measure to escape a trio of hungry orcas, a sea lion sought refuge on a small boat and nearly capsized the vessel while attempting to climb aboard.
The scary encounter occurred off the coast of Vancouver Island in Canada on Monday as a Prince of Whales whale-watching boat observed a group of transient killer whales, as reported by the Times Colonist and CTV News.
Mark Malleson, a guide with Prince of Whales, told the Times Colonist that other whale-watching boats were observing the orcas, along with a couple in a small boat, which stopped to let the whales pass.
“I noticed there was a sea lion beside them,” Malleson told the Times Colonist. “It was pretty worked up. At one point, I actually yelled over to them, ‘You’re going to want to get out of there.’ The sea lion was trying to take refuge on their boat.”
Malleson didn’t think the sea lion was being hunted by the orcas, but believed it “misinterpreted the situation” and “panicked.”
This led to the 600-pound-plus pinniped leaping out of the water in an attempt to board the small boat, as seen in video posted by CTV News.
“It did one jump and kind of landed on the side of boat and then it did a second one, which actually flipped the boat up on its side, and I thought they’d capsized for sure, but it righted itself,” Malleson told CTV News.
Malleson told the Times Colonist that the boat righted itself “miraculously.”
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“The sea lion ended up back in the water and now they’re half full of water trying to motor,” Malleson told CTV News.
“If that animal had landed in the boat, somebody could have gotten seriously hurt, just from the sheer size or from the teeth.”
Fortunately, the boaters, obviously shaken, survived the ordeal, and so did the sea lion.
Photo courtesy of Prince of Whales.
