The incident occurred yesterday afternoon at Steveston Wharf in Richmond. A group of people were standing around watching sea lions and it was believed one or more of those watching were throwing food, believed to be bread crumbs, at the sea lion.
Michael Fujiwara was filming the sea lion when the little girl was grabbed. Fujiwara later uploaded the video to YouTube and Twitter. The video shows the sea lion swimming around while some on the docks are throwing food into the water, causing the sea lion to swim right up to the dock.
Around the 1:25 minute mark of the video, the girl can be seen kneeling on the other side of the ledge separating the wharf from the water. The sea lion approaches and jumps up right in front of her. She instinctively moves back while she and others seem excited at how close the sea lion got.
Then the girl, wearing a loose fitting dress, moves closer and attempts to sit sideways on the ledge. The sea lion jumps up again, grabbing the dress in its mouth and then goes back into the water, taking the girl with it. The crowd reacts in horror and screams of “Oh my God, Oh my God”, can be heard.
Within seconds, an adult jumps into the water, grabs the young girl and then hands her up to others on the wharf. Other adults then help him out of the water. People can be heard asking the girl how she was. She was obviously terrified by her ordeal but appeared to otherwise be uninjured.
Sea lions are generally thought of as timid and intelligent; mammals that can be taught to do tricks. But they can be aggressive although the sea lion in this instance may not have being trying to intentionally hurt the little girl. It just got too close to people because they were feeding it.
Both the Steveston Harbour Authority and the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) warn people against feeding sea lions. Lara Sloan, a spokesperson for DFO, said feeding sea lions make them less wary of both humans and boats. They then associate humans with food and this can lead the marine mammal, that can weigh hundreds of kilograms, to unintentionally hurt people. Not being afraid of people can also lead to sea lions being injured or killed by boats or entrapped in fishing nets.
Sloan also pointed out it is an offence to disturb a sea lion under the Marine Mammals Regulations.
