Ernest and Viesia Godek were fishing off the British Columbia coast when their small vessel was nearly capsized by a sea lion leaping onto the boat in an attempt to escape three killer whales. Boat operator Mark Malleson mentioned that the 700-800 pound sea lion could have caused serious harm to a passenger if it had landed on them.
Two boaters fishing off the British Columbia coast had a startling experience when a sea lion leaped onto their small boat in an attempt to escape killer whales.
Ernest and Viesia Godek were fishing at Pedder Bay near Victoria when they noticed three killer whales near their vessel and promptly turned off the engines.
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“It tipped the boat over to the point where we had to hang on to the gunwales, the water started pouring into the boat… I was just hoping that we wouldn’t totally tip over,” Ernest told the Times Colonist.
However, the boat righted itself moments later, and the sea lion plunged into the water.
Mark Malleson, the boat’s operator, estimated the mammal weighed between 700 and 800 pounds.
“If that animal had landed in the boat, somebody could have gotten seriously hurt, just from the sheer size or from the teeth,” he told CTV News.
Even after falling back into the water, the sea lion continued to chase the boaters as they headed for the shore.
Onlookers on a whale-watching boat captured the encounter in photos and videos from a safe distance away.
Earlier, a viral video featuring two Steller sea lions hitching a ride on a boat helped put the often-underestimated size of these creatures into perspective.