If you dropped by the Wedge Tuesday afternoon you might have thought you’d walked up on a scene from Jaws. The actual scene: a handful of surfers and bodyboarders racing out of the water like they were all being chased by a hungry predator…or an aggro local seal.
Local videographer Dingo, aka @dingosaidso was on the beach shooting the whole thing. And it wasn’t just a one-off moment where everybody scampered to shore and then got back to life as usual when they thought the coast was clear. The aggressive seal stuck around in the shorebreak, taking waves for itself at times, and patrolled the whole area making sure nobody else got back in the water. If they did, it went right back to terrorizing them and even coming to shore to hold its ground.
A similar story made headlines back in 2023 when a sea otter began terrorizing surfers in Santa Cruz. What started out as an odd interaction with Otter 841, as scientists referenced it, with the animal stealing a surfboard at Cowells, escalated as more and more surfers began having aggressive encounters with the mammal. One theory suggested the behavior came from a mother otter that was born in captivity.
As for the aggro OC Seal, the Pacific Marine Mammal Center was eventually called onto the scene Tuesday from Laguna Beach. To nobody’s surprise, once the seal was captured, the groms went rushing right back into the water to get barreled.