{"id":485246,"date":"2026-10-04T23:52:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485246\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T23:52:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T23:52:14","slug":"tense-moment-massive-otter-gets-in-standoff-with-young-surfers-off-california-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/485246\/","title":{"rendered":"Tense moment massive otter gets in standoff with young surfers off California coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

An otter may have been looking for a fight with a group of young surfers at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The aquatic critter approached the group and climbed on top of one surfer’s board.<\/p>\n

A witness caught the interaction on video and told ABC 7<\/a> that the otter appeared as though it wanted to attack the surfers \u2014 though, of course, what the otter was really thinking remains unclear.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An otter approaches a youth surf club and climbs onto a surfer’s board at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz. Instagram\/@skin_dizzle<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The otter looked like it was going to attack the young surfers. Instagram\/@skin_dizzle<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"At<\/p>\n

At one point, the otter got on top of one of the surfer’s boards. Instagram\/@skin_dizzle<\/p>\n

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

Gray was attacked around 8 a.m. while paddle-boarding between Capitola Wharf and Privates Beach near Pleasure Point.<\/p>\n

“I was like, ‘what, what’s happening,’ it was like a horror movie,” she told KNTV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gray was bitten on her arm, hand and feet before she was able to fight off the sea lion.<\/p>\n

Video of the incident captured by the website Surfline showed the moment Gray was knocked off her board.<\/p>\n

“The thing that was the most bizarre was that it grabbed my hair,” she said.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

A friend eventually took Gray to urgent care for treatment, where she received tetanus and rabies shots because of the bites.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

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

The center said the toxin can cause animals to behave unpredictably.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

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