CRAZY Sea Lion attack

I have had a recent experience which has troubled me greatly an am trying to find out if anyone has experienced anything similar. I have been kayak fishing in a certain area for about three years (the friend that I fish with has been fishing the area for at least fifteen or twenty years), and have had plenty of encounters with sea lions. These encounters are of the normal variety - lions will follow us for a stretch, bark at us, swim under our kayak, etc. While there have been times that we have been a little nervous, we have never felt especially threatened. That is, until a week ago.

My wife's cousin from Nebraska wanted to go on a California kayak fishing adventure so I took him out. We fished all morning catching lots of fish and having no encounter with any sea lions. All of a sudden, a small sea lion (200-300 lbs., I would guess) jumped completely out of the water next to our kayak and on his way back down banged against the left side of the boat. Just as I was about to breath a sigh of relief to still be right-side-up, I saw the lion dart under the kayak and come flying up at us. The lion jumped out of the water again, and this time latched on to my wife's cousin's right arm. The lion then went under the kayak and back to the left side and started barking at us. After a couple of pokes with the paddle and loud yells the lion finally left us alone. Fortunately, my wife's cousin wasn't hurt. He had two big scrapes down his right arm and his shirt was ruined (and probably his underwear!), but he was okay.

I am wondering what would cause this thing to attack us. I have been reading thread after thread on website after website and haven't found any similar incidents. I know sea lions will seek a free meal and be quite bold about it (I saw the youtube clip of the sea lion jumping on the front of someone's kayak to get at his fish), but this guy (or girl? I don't know how to tell) wasn't after food - he could have had his pick of dozens of fish we were hauling up. I also know (and have witnessed) that a sea lion can be territorial, but in my experience, their teritorial behavior almost always consists of making alot of noise. This thing came from nowhere in stealth mode. He was also aone - I don't know if this is significant, but I usually (almost always) sea smaller sea lions in groups.

Anyway, I am currently assuming that this is some astronomical, one in a million fluke, will most likely never happen again, and continue fishing as normal (except with my club within closer reach). My friend who has 15+ years experience fishing this area hasn't had this happen but shares the same concern as me: is this normal and is there anything we can do to avoid it? Has anyone else ever had anything like this happen to them?

I chose this site to put out feelers for this topic because it seems like you guys spend alot of time on the water in relatively the same area as where I fish. I appreciate any feedback.

I've had the big ones buzz the bow of my boat but never had or witnessed an attack.
Where were you guys fishing?
Was there a rookery near by?
How far apart were you from the one that was bitten?

 sounds like a territoriality thing.
Maybe domoic acid poisoning?

There was no rookery nearby. We were fishing out of the same kayak -I was in the rear so I watched everything happen to my wife's cousin from Nebraska - he had no clue what happened until it was all over.

I had a similar experience the day after GS4.
The seal, about the size of a German Shepard came out of nowhere.  He jumped out of the water barking at me and almost landed on my bow. Immediately came out again and did a summersault and than came up a third time and landed on my stern. The whole time barking at me. After a few seconds of hostel behavior, he jumped off my stern, did another summersault and disappeared. The whole thong happend on only a matter of seconds. I was about 100 yards away from the closest bouy and never saw him coming or going.
After discussing the event with many people it is my conclusion that either
A. The seal was protecting his area.                 
B. The seal was trying to protect his mating area.
C. He was being chased by an unseen predator.
Being as there were many anglers in that same area the day before without a similar incident, I tend to believe "C" may have been the case.

Sent from my phone cause I can

I had a similar experience the day after GS4.
The seal, about the size of a German Shepard came out of nowhere.  He jumped out of the water barking at me and almost landed on my bow. Immediately came out again and did a summersault and than came up a third time and landed on my stern. The whole time barking at me. After a few seconds of hostel behavior, he jumped off my stern, did another summersault and disappeared. The whole thong happend on only a matter of seconds. I was about 100 yards away from the closest bouy and never saw him coming or going.
After discussing the event with many people it is my conclusion that either
A. The seal was protecting his area.                 
B. The seal was trying to protect his mating area.
C. He was being chased by an unseen predator.
Being as there were many anglers in that same area the day before without a similar incident, I tend to believe "C" may have been the case.

Sent from my phone cause I can

Yeah, so the good news is that there was probably a Great White under your kayak too...

I had a similar experience the day after GS4.
The seal, about the size of a German Shepard came out of nowhere.  He jumped out of the water barking at me and almost landed on my bow. Immediately came out again and did a summersault and than came up a third time and landed on my stern. The whole time barking at me. After a few seconds of hostel behavior, he jumped off my stern, did another summersault and disappeared.
Being as there were many anglers in that same area the day before without a similar incident, I tend to believe "C" may have been the case.

Sent from my phone cause I can

Actually the EXACT same thing happened to be DURING the GS4 tourney in the same vicinity as it happened to you the next day.
Just be glad you didn't have your pants down and end up pissing all over yourself like I did. 


I also had one bite me in the foot one time while I was surfing the rivermouth at Jenner. No idea why they do what they do......who knows what goes on in the mind of a furbag.   

I also had one bite me in the foot one time while I was surfing the rivermouth at Jenner. No idea why they do what they do......who knows what goes on in the mind of a furbag.   

I had one (Cape Fur Seal, actually a sealion, very similar to the Cali Sealion) bite me on the foot back in South Africa. Luckily it just got the end of my booty.
There were pups at a particular reef break that would grab your leash, often at take off causing you to stack.

Maybe that was the landlord warning hoping for u to take him away from there.

one thing that seems common in all your encounters is that the sea lion seem to be smaller imatures.  Perhaps they are "playing" or something along those lines?  Practicing defense?

one thing that seems common in all your encounters is that the sea lion seem to be smaller imatures.  Perhaps they are "playing" or something along those lines?  Practicing defense?

Nah, the one that bit my booty was a large full grown furbag.

I wonder if you guys are in Hobbies. Maybe its the fin  movement under the Hobbie that makes them think you are a sea lion in there territory.

I believe Jim's and mine were on surfboards.

I've been scuba diving for twenty years and it is very common for sea lions to be overly playful. At 60 feet I've had a massive blurr charge up on me at full speed then stop on a dime two feet from my face mask. Bark at me and then buzz off as quickly as he arrived. If there ever was an excuse to soil myself that would have been it  . Luckily my tank had been recently emptied 

I've heard stories of divers having there fins and even masks removed by sea lions. Even to the point where a few of them would swim around the diver playing "keep away" with what ever object they took. 

I've also heard of overly aggressive sea lions due to either too much human interaction such as feeding or because of a previous hostile encounter with humans.