Tense moment massive otter gets in standoff with young surfers off California coast

An otter may have been looking for a fight with a group of young surfers at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz.

The aquatic critter approached the group and climbed on top of one surfer’s board.

A witness caught the interaction on video and told ABC 7 that the otter appeared as though it wanted to attack the surfers — though, of course, what the otter was really thinking remains unclear.

Before things took a turn, one of the surfers charged toward the otter to scare it away, creating some distance between the animal and the group.

No injuries were reported from the interaction, but it is among a growing list of encounters involving these kinds of sea creatures along the California coast.

In September, Heather Gray, a woman paddle-boarding off the coast of Santa Cruz, suffered a nightmare encounter with an overzealous sea lion that sent her straight into the water, according to reports.

Gray was attacked around 8 a.m. while paddle-boarding between Capitola Wharf and Privates Beach near Pleasure Point.

“I was like, ‘what, what’s happening,’ it was like a horror movie,” she told KNTV.

Gray was bitten on her arm, hand and feet before she was able to fight off the sea lion.

Video of the incident captured by the website Surfline showed the moment Gray was knocked off her board.

“The thing that was the most bizarre was that it grabbed my hair,” she said.

After the attack, she managed to get back on her board and headed straight for shore, but the sea lion followed her, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“We’re so used to seeing them get really comfortable with them, and I knew this wasn’t really like normal,” Gray told KNTV.

A friend eventually took Gray to urgent care for treatment, where she received tetanus and rabies shots because of the bites.

“I know that there’s a lot of sea lions that are sick right now, so my first thought was, ‘Oh my gosh this was one of these sick sea lions,’” Gray told the station.

This year, the Marine Mammal Center said sea lions and fur seals around Monterey Bay have been suffering from domoic acid poisoning. Researchers still don’t know why there’s been an increase in the number of animals affected.

The center said the toxin can cause animals to behave unpredictably.

“Domoic acid poisoning is caused by harmful algal blooms,” the center said. “The neurotoxin accumulates in small fish that are eaten by marine mammals including sea lions.”

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