A teenage girl initially feared she was being attacked by a shark during her lifeguard test in Southern California, but the predator turned out to be an aggressive sea lion.
Phoebe Beltran, 15, was doing her swim test for her lifeguard certification in Long Beach on March 30 when she felt something clamp down on her arm.
‘Out of nowhere, I feel something biting my arm,’ she told KTLA. ‘I saw a shadow of it and all I’m thinking is: ‘Please, don’t be a shark. Please, don’t take off my arm, and please, don’t kill me.”
Her own mother, Bibi Beltran, thought she had seen a shark fin and yelled that the predator was in the water.
‘We all rushed to the water, and when I realized it was my daughter, that’s when I broke down,’ she told the local outlet.
Except it wasn’t a shark, but an angry sea lion that was attacking the teenager – but that didn’t mean Beltran walked away unharmed.
The animal had bitten and scratched the teenager’s arm several times, causing the limb to swell and bruise.
Other lifeguards came to her rescue and pulled her out of the water before rushing the lifeguard trainee to the hospital.
The girl still has red scratches littering her arms, but once she is fully recovered, she plans on trying out for the lifeguard cadets once more.
‘I love the beach, I love the ocean, I love swimming,’ she told KTLA.
Earlier this year, surfer Rj LaMendola was left ‘shaken to his core’ after being mauled by a sea lion infected with a zombie-like neurotoxin.
In a Facebook post, LaMendola described his experience riding the waves at California’s Oxnard State Beach Park before encountering the ‘deranged predator’.
Out of nowhere, it erupted from the water, hurtling toward him ‘at full speed’ with its ‘mouth gaped wide’ and teeth gleaming.
After several attempts at an ambush, the crazed animal clamped its jaws down hard on his left butt cheek.
LaMendola said he’s still dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder from the encounter, which scientists say was caused by a neurological disorder due to an infection by toxic algae blooms.
He described it as ‘the most harrowing and traumatic experience of my 20 years of surfing’, adding it ‘left me shaken to my core.’
‘The pain was sharp and immediate, but the terror was worse – it shook its head violently, tugging me off my board by my flesh, dragging me into the water,’ he said.
‘Its expression was feral, almost demonic, devoid of the curiosity or playfulness I’d always associated with sea lions.’
The surfer said he eventually stumbled back onto the beach with blood pouring down his leg, but managed to drive to a nearby hospital.
Last summer, other California beachgoers were left screaming and crying after a protective sea lion charged at them.
Lauren Bertrand was visiting La Jolla Cove in San Diego on June 23 when she captured the footage of the angry sea lion.
Prior to its attack on beachgoers, the marine mammal was swimming around the area with its babies, whom Bertrand also caught a glimpse of.
The sea lion nearly came face to face with one swimmer before it swam away, leaving the humans unhurt.
Sea lions, which can weigh up to 700 pounds full-grown, are known to be aggressive. The ones gracing the Southern California waters are dealing with poisonous algae blooms, which may being making them angrier, KTLA said.
Beachgoers are warned to leave sea lions alone and avoid eye contact with the animals.