Experts look to capture aggressive sea otter following several incidents with surfers
By Ariana Jaso
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SANTA CRUZ, California (KSBW) — Following a number of incidents involving a particular sea otter acting aggressively towards surfers in Santa Cruz, California Fish and Wildlife are looking to capture it.
The sea otter, which is often sighted near West Cliff, can easily be identified by the blue tag on its left fin. Although no injuries have been reported, Fish and Wildlife said the sea otter is on their radar and that a team of trained experts are working to capture it. It’s a 5-year-old female that was born in captivity, according to Fish and Wildlife. They added that her mother had been removed from the wild for aggressive behavior towards people as a result of being fed by the public.
On Sunday, a fourth incident happened between a surfer and the sea otter. Local photographer, Mark Woodward who saw it all happen, says that was the fourth time he’s seen the otter act aggressively with surfers.
“I thought, it’s like, okay, it’s behaving itself,” said Woodward. “And it went straight into the line of the surfers and literally went board to board, you know, taking bites of different surfboards until it settled on the one bright board and decided it wanted to ride that.”
In the video, you can see the otter biting the surfboard, even climbing on top of it while the surfer tried to shake it off.
Santa Cruz resident, Nicholas Freedman rushed down to help the surfer out of the water when he saw him struggling to get out, as waves crashed up against him. “He was like trying to figure out how to like, climb up slippery rocks. I was like, give me your hand! And we connected hands, and I pulled him up,” said Freedman. “I don’t know what I’d be more afraid of if I was getting bashed on the rocks or getting bit by a wild animal.”
The surfer, Joon Young, said that it was just his third time surfing and probably his last.
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