General wisdom says to stay away from wild animals, but sometimes they just want to…hang out. Recently, a seal pup at Tourmaline in San Diego has been spending time hopping from surfboard to surfboard, to the amusement of the local lineup.
“Four days ago, a baby seal pup was spotted, and I came down three days ago to see if he was still around,” said drone photographer Ed Hartel to CBS 8 San Diego. “Basically, he swims from board to board jumping on different surfers’ boards. He’ll sit there for five to 10 minutes and then paddle to another surfer’s board and he does it all morning long.”
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Though the footage is quite frankly adorable, there is a sad story to behind the wayward pinniped.
“Some of the surfers saw a great white come into the point here and [it] ate the mom three to four days ago. Ever since then the baby’s stuck there,” said Hartel. Commenters on Hartel’s Instagram posts have noted that there was a dead adult seal washed up on shore nearby, and that an onlooker called Parks and Recreation and SeaWorld. However, Hartel said that both organizations sent teams out and did not intervene, as the pup appeared healthy.
“It seems healthy, seems to be happy. He just has this weird behavior where he wants to be around people and on their board,” said Hartel.
