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A woman paddle-boarding off the California coast in Santa Cruz suffered a nightmare encounter with a sea lion that sent her straight into the water, according to reports.
Heather Gray was attacked around 8 a.m. while paddle-boarding between Capitola Wharf and Privates Beach near Pleasure Point.
“I was like, ‘what, what’s happening,’ it was like a horror movie,” she told KNTV.
Gray was bitten on her arm, hand and feet and had to fight off the sea lion.
Video of the incident captured by the website Surfline showed the moment Gray was knocked off her board.
“The thing that was the most bizarre was that it grabbed my hair,” she said.
After the attack, Gray managed to get back on her board and headed straight for shore, but the sea lion followed her, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
“We’re so used to seeing them get really comfortable with them, and I knew this wasn’t really like normal,” Gray told KNTV.
A friend eventually took Gray to urgent care for treatment, where she received tetanus and rabies shots because of the bites.
“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.
This year, the Marine Mammal Center said sea lions and fur seals around Monterey Bay have been suffering from domoic acid poisoning. Researchers still don’t know why there’s been an increase in the number of animals affected.
The center said the toxin can cause animals to behave unpredictably.
“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.”
There was also another reported sea lion attack Tuesday involving a surfer near Santa Cruz.
The center has encouraged people to stay at least 150 feet away from animals that may be suffering from domoic acid poisoning.
As for Gray, she said the attack won’t stop her from getting back into the water.
“I’m not scared to go back out there but I kind of want some of this domoic acid and red tide stuff to clear,” she told KNTV.
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