Seal Attacks...

Read this while looking for Halibut reports. Thought it was pretty interesting.

Jason

The breaking news is the sealion attacks at the Berkeley marina on Wednesday. James's galley chef Tyani Houston was grab by an estimated 1500 to 2000 pound bull sealion as she walked off the boat on Wednesday. She was literally ambushed and grabbed by the leg by the big bull just as she was walking down the dock when a deckhand on another boat grabbed and pulled her back on before going in the water. Captain Shawn on the El Dorado was also attacked as he walked down the dock but kicked at the bull and drove him off. The third attack was on a customer who was sitting on a dock box watching a deckhand fillet fish when the same sealion jumped out of the water and grabbed the backpack he was wearing, again the bull was driven off. Today Fish and Game showed up and tried to trap the sealion but their cage was too small and the crazy pinniped got away. GOT AWAY BECAUSE THE TRAP WAS TOO SMALL? Now if this was a bear or a (protected) mountain lion attacking people it would be shot on site. But F&G is being way too politically correct and are trying to trap it but then again this is Berkeley. Boys, bring the rifles down and pop this SOB. For that matter it's time to drop protection for California sealions who's population has grown 5 fold in the past two decades. Yes, shoot a protected mountain lion attacking your kids and you will be a hero. Shoot a sealion trying to drag your kid in the water and go to jail. Makes sense to me. This weekends special on the Cal Dawn is going to be a breakfast burrito surprise and for lunch the Cal Dawn fur-burger will be free if they can just get the media cameras off the dock.

I was surfing ITS (the break on the other side of Steamers) a few years ago, and got harassed by a pretty big bull. He was just barking at us but it was still pretty scary. I hear they go a little cuckooo around mating season.

Jason, remember when we (CHris/CPyak) were rockfishing by the nipple at Linda Mar last year....Chris was being stalked by a bull....THAT was freaky That bad boy was somehow attracted to Chris and didn't give me and Jason the time of day   Must be CHris's after shave = female seal lion extract 

I think they respect height above the water. cause that implies bulk below the water? just a theory, but a lot of animals
have a whole system for measuring bulk and size to try to eliminate the fighting part.

a big bull can stick his head 3 or maybe 4 feet out of the water. cause he's got another 6 under water.

got chased from the water @ flat rock, which is in full shark territory about 300 yards north of mavericks, that
little island there. big bull barking and giving stinkeye in the fog.

next time we ran into the same bull, we slid off the boards and raised them out of the water and yelled a lot. 
It worked instantly. He left and kind of just looked at us from far away after that.  maybe he was just thinking "crazy surfer-shark-baits".

So mooch you could try holding your paddle blade above your head, make sure that guy knows you are 6 feet above
the water.

As for cpkayak, he's a big guy, kind of bull sea-lion shaped, bull probably thought he was trying to move in on his harem.

decided to keep a close watch. 

or perhaps he thought mooch was harem member #1, and was trying to figure out how to steal him away, 

good thing those things just eat fish, cause those bulls are freaking huge.

Those seadogs get pretty uppity around mating season and often rather territorial.  I've got the tooth marks on the bottom of my kayak to prove it, too.  I got attacked one day out by the mile-marker in Santa Cruz.   Had to change my shorts once I got back to the truck.

JMairey,

You should be more concerned about a bull attacking your kayak than GW. At least from what I am reading on this thread.    Maybe attacking is too strong a word, shall we use mating?


Jason

the female sealions are a lot smaller and the much larger bulls do fight each other over who gets them all.

But before they actually fight I'm sure they do all the sizing up tricks that dogs and people do too. shoving,
standing close to see who is bigger, seeing who can raise themselves out of the water higher, etc.

So you could be attacked in your kayak by a bull that thinks you are moving in on his harem,
and molested when you fall out cause you resemble a female sealion,  . Then saved by a GWS,
which comes along to eat the seals, but maybe eaten as dessert.    A busy day in other words.

J

Jason, remember when we (CHris/CPyak) were rockfishing by the nipple at Linda Mar last year....Chris was being stalked by a bull....THAT was freaky That bad boy was somehow attracted to Chris and didn't give me and Jason the time of day   Must be CHris's after shave = female seal lion extract 

Don't let one see you in your speedo Moochy

We had an attack this year by a large bull up here in the Noyo harbor.  A commercial fisherman was yanked into the water by a big bull and had to be rescued by the coastguard.

Two yeas ago, my (then) 16 year old son was working his summer job at the now defunct kayak shop in the harbor.  His job was to wipe down rental kayaks tethered to the dock with one of those red shop towels.  A huge bull thought the red towel was a salmon carcass and jumped up on the dock, chased him down the dock all the while trying to bite his hand holding the shop towel. Luckily, he had the smarts to chuck the towel in the water, and the sealion went after it.  He came within inches of losing his hand.  If this had happened, I guess I would have had to deal with DFG, because I would have done something.

It seems like the pendulum has swung too far the other way.   In our harbor, there is a population of sealions that is not much more than dangerous vermin......with absolutely no fear of people.  Like Yosemite bears.  We should at least make them not want to come in the harbors.  Also, maybe this only applies to Noyo, but the charter guys feeding them carcasses doesn't help either.

how fast are they on land?

how fast are they on land?

I'm not sure, but this was on one of those skinny floating docks, maybe 3 feet wide and 20 ft long.  The only place to go is into the water.

I had one chase me on the dingy dock in Monterey a few years ago.  They can scoot pretty fast.  I had been banging on the dock with an ore to scare them away so I could get to my dingy.  One big bull decided it was his dock and came after me.  I was lucky to get away into a small crowd of tourists when he stopped chasing.  I assume the crowd stopped him.

On a different occasion I found about 20-25 juveniles on my sailboat.  They scared off easily but left a huge mess.  This was a few years ago when they tookover Monterey harbor.  I had to use construction netting to prevent them from climbing aboard.

While in my humble opinion they mostly scare off easily in the presence of people, one person may not be enough to scare off a large bull.  Also, while I have paddled in the proximity of sealions many times I have never felt threatened while on the water, only that time on the dock.  I have only recently started fishing however, maybethat makes a difference to them?

 I respect the fact that sea lions are protected, but any animal that has made a habit of attacking people needs to be shot. These animals are too smart for relocation, IMO.
 Fish and Game needs to enforce some sort of regulation...