What started as an idyllic day on the docks of Stevenston, a normally quiet seaside town near Vancouver’s western coast, quickly turned to terror when a sea lion dragged a young girl from the guard rail and into the murky water below. The creature, identified as a California sea lion*, could weigh up to 860 pounds, and it flexed its size and strength by taking the unsuspecting child from her family with ease.
Thankfully, a man jumped into the water to free the girl from the clutches of the deceivingly cute monster, losing his sunglasses in the process. The entire ordeal only lasted a few seconds, with the man who took the video, Michael Fujiwara, painting the scene played out: “They were pretty shaken up,” Fujiwara told CBC News. “Her family was just in shock.”
I captured a scary moment of a seal dragging a young girl into the water at the #Richmond Steveston Wharf #Vancouver https://t.co/58mzL0v1mM
— Michael Fujiwara (@MichaelFujiwara) May 21, 2017
The Washington Post spoke to Andrew Tites, director of the University of British Columbia’s Marine Mammal Research Unit who was stern but fair in his assessment of the family’s actions.
“My first reaction to the video is just how stupid some people can be to not treat wildlife with proper respect,” he told CBC News, adding later: “They are not circus performers. They’re not trained to be next to people.”
Just like Arrested Development‘s foreshadowing of Buster Bluth’s hand being bitten off by a seal GOB dumped into the sea, this is something no one saw coming until they rewatched it a few times.
*The author understands that a seal and a sea lion are not the same, but for the sake of making the Arrested Development jokes work, he’s going for it.
(Via CBC News and Washington Post)