Brawling with Lions

I paddled out of Santa Cruz Harbor yesterday at 7am for my first ever attempt at salmon mooching. Being the noob that I am, I was excited to put my new fish finder to use and made it a goal to tag the 1 mile buoy on my GPS. I saw lots of bait on the way out, caught my first ever anchovies on the sabiki, and was enjoying the relatively mild conditions (light fog, no wind, 3ft swell @ 18 seconds).

I approached my goal around 9am and saw that there was a gang of rowdy sea lions inhabiting the buoy. Good common sense says that one should not approach wild animals so I gave them a healthy buffer of ~50 yards before I started playing with my electronics.

Suddenly there was a big collision into the starboard stern of my kayak, lurching me forward. In a "WHATDAFUCKISTHATGETAWAYFROMME" sort of response, I jabbed at the animal in the face with my paddle. Perhaps that was a mistake, because this (fortunately) small sea lion, whipped around and jumped out of the water at me with jaws agape. It slammed into my right shoulder, sending me overboard and causing my first ever kayak capsize.

Still in panic mode because I was not sure if the lion had intentions of installing puncture holes (or worse) into my lower half, I righted the kayak and got in as fast as I could. Luckily I never saw the lion again. I did my best to quickly paddle out of the area while gathering any gear that didn't swim to the bottom.

It took me a good 5 minutes to collect my wits, and then another 20 minutes to realize that the little lion ripped through two layers of clothing and left me with literally just a scratch. It took a couple hours to warm up but I kept fishing, obviously.

But unfortunately, I didn't catch anything besides smelt and jack mackerel for the rest of the day. At one point I was startled by a massive ocean sunfish creeping up on my port stern, but I managed to refrain from thwacking it in the nose 

Lessons learned:

• Sea lions can be real jerks and they don't like to be approached or bashed with a paddle
• They mean it when they say to tie down everything you want to keep. I didn't lose anything valuable or expensive, but I didn't take this advice seriously enough

woah! glad there wasn't any real damage.
Is there a domoic acid bloom at the mile buoy? That's some unusual behavior.

Dang, that's crazy for sure! I've been pushed out of an area by a sealion before, they were not having me in their living room and were constantly swimming at me, diving under me, surfacing near me and I got the hint.     Great that you were able to self rescue and didn't loose anything!  Thanks for sharing!

That's scary, glad it is not worse.
Years ago, I was out of Salt point maybe a couple hundred yards offshore.
Orcas were trashing about half mile out, I paddled towards them to investigate. As I approached I could see they were tossing what it seamed to be a seal or sea lion. Out of nowhere a very agitated young sealion landed on my bow nearly flipping me over, pushed him down and in no time he was back on my bow again, flipped him off, made a u-turn and paddled like hell towards shore to get out of there. Thank goodness it was a juvenile otherwise I would have ended up in the soup. Since you got bit, I don't believe your encounter was triggered by a predator.

Man, read enough here and you come to realize just how scary the ocean can be! Between the sharks and lions the fish market is looking more and more attractive. 

Glad you're ok.

That's some unusual behavior.

I don’t know about that. Last year, in that same area, one tried to hurdle the rear aka bar on my AI and didn’t make it. It was stuck on the bar for what seemed like forever, thrashing back and forth with its teeth close to my head. Thankfully, no bite or capsize…

Maybe there’s something about the mile buoy that makes them see kayaks as potential resting spots…

That's some scary stuff...I once had a sea lion chase me pretty close for ~2 miles at HMB and thought it was going to lunge at me.  As there's so many of us these days otw, I wonder if they've been conditioned to see us as competition for their food source and hence, aggression kicks in.

Thanks for sharing all of the sea lion stories… it helps to understand what can happen out there.

After my run-in I saw some boaters getting really close to the buoy and the lions seemed pretty worked up. Maybe they’d had enough.

I also wondered if it was competition for food. The lion could have been out feeding and I was in his spot.

In the past, the commercial fleet put the fear of god into them. Their numbers have sky rocketed so much that it increased pressure among themselves for food and space. Easier to challenge a kayaker invading territory than the big alpha bull watching over his harem.

OK, that sounded scary. So glad you did not sustain any injuries. Bummer on the dry suit and any lost gear. I have had a few sea lions dog me in the past when salmon fishing to the point I just high tailed it out of that area. I try to avoid them completely. They outweigh me 4-5x.

I feel like I'm more scared of sea lions than the landlord, they can be super aggro. I was harassed for several hours by a huge male while lobstering in san diego at night last year. He was bumping the bottom of my kayak over and over. splashing up and trying to grab my rings as I pulled them up. and obviously trying to eat the bait from my rings. Luckily I had learned by this point that the seal proof bait cans are 100% necessary for lobstering and didnt lose any gear. The spot was producing so I didn't want to move, but I was pretty scared. If his behavior escalated any more I would have left but that was that. I think ultimately he left. Sorry about your encounter and the suit, thanks for sharing.

He was bumping the bottom of my kayak over and over.

Wow, nerves of steel! Did he make his presence known before bumping you? I wonder if I had not been futzing with electronics that I would have seen this guy approach and would not have been so startled (and not whacked him with my paddle).

dang! glad you made it safe

I have had them following, and going under side to side at Doren while crabbing. They were after the salmon heads I was using in the traps. When I pulled them up the traps were mangled, and the salmon was gone.

I have thought about carrying bear repellent since I have a couple of canisters I carry when morel hunting. However I’m amazed that my kayak doesn’t sink with all the must haves I already have onboard.

Glad to hear you made it safely back, and quite bold to keep fishing. I would of headed back in as fast as I am capable.

... Their numbers have sky rocketed so much that it increased pressure among themselves for food and space. ...

Last time I am aware a sea lion head count was done was in the 1990’s. At that time the sea lion herd was 120% of its natural size, thanks to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. And its only gotten bigger. The sea lion herd needs to be managed, at least 1 in 6 of those critters needs to be culled. It is well past time to open sea lions up to hunting/furring. The herd needs to be brought back into the realm of reality.

Btw, if we artificially inflate the sea lion herd size, as we have, we also artificially inflate the number of great white sharks, the animal that feeds on sea lions, and we have. With the state ban on taking great white sharks, their artificially inflated numbers are protected and growing. Anyone that gets bitten by a GWS should sue the state of Calif.