Do seals bite scuba divers?

[Bert van den Berg]

Hi,

Recently our local dive operator has started anchoring their boat(s) near a rock that historically has seals in our winter (Poor Knights Islands, New Zealand). The divers stay in one place at a depth of about 10M and the seals have been diving down and seem to be playing with the divers. Here is a short video of some of the action:

The seals appear to be having fun and the divers are loving it but I wonder if anyone has known seals to injure a non-agressive and passive diver? Is this safe?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Those are sea lions in the video, not seals. Yes, they definitely bite! I was attacked by a bull sea lion once while wearing large double tanks. He tossed me around like a rag doll before biting my elbow. They stopped being fun to watch for me after that.

 

[Patoux01]

Surely someone got chewed on at some point (see the guy above). Much like diving with sharks (heck, those wobbies in Oz have chewed quite nicely on a few ankles of surfers!) is not fully risk-free.

My (little) experience with those fellas is:
- they got huge teeth. I mean like huge, suddenly they're not little balls of joy anymore once you realize that.
- they love frightening people. They'll charge right in and move away at the last moment.
- they don't care too much about you. You're usually not food.


They can get curious and start chewing gently sometimes (didn't experience this, I just saw it on a few videos. There's one on the DIR subsection about diving with seals, and I remember Fourth Element posting one on their facebook page where you can clearly see them nomming on a divers' fins)


This sums it up pretty well imo:
"He gently chewed my fins and boots like a contented giant dog with a toy, his eyes half-shut. Then he gradually came up to explore my legs, arms and head, letting out a stream of grunts in response to my laughs.
His mouth was about the size of a large dog’s, his teeth somewhat larger, and he was definitely nibbly.
Biting like this is by no means an aggressive act, it’s just how seals investigate interesting things, like us feeling an object with our hands. Still, the teeth are sharp, and any cuts could bring nasty infections."

From The deal with seals


Seeing the number of people diving with seals (even if they might be lions, they'll always be seals for people in Oz and around) and not getting injured, it's safe on my watch.

 

[Centrals]

Only yesterday I saw a video on line that a seal/sea lion pulled a young girl from the pier to water. Luckily a man jumped in and brought the girl back unharmed.
You could argue that if the animal meant to harm her, she could be in big trouble.
I would keep my distance from any "wild" animal.

 

[Patoux01]

Only yesterday I saw a video on line that a seal/sea lion pulled a young girl from the pier to water. Luckily a man jumped in and brought the girl back unharmed.

Of course, the mean animal was there to kill the girl. Or maybe they've just been feeding the thing for 20 minutes and then decide that going to sit in front of it while turning their back is a smart move.
Here's the footage
Is it still the animal that is responsible? My bet is no. There's no "luckily a man jumped in", there's "stupidly, they let her sit in front of the animal" (I won't go over the kid being smart enough to go and sit turning her back to some animal about 3 times her size).

I mean, my dog would do the same, and as a matter of fact has done something very similar. My cousin (age around 8 then) was eating with her hands and feeding the dog under the table. At some point she lets her hands full of food under the table with no intention of feeding the dog, so she gets a lick, and the teeth touch her hand (obviously). Since then my dog is a "dangerous animal that bites". I see a large parallel there, except that one animal is supposedly "domesticated" and the other is "wild". But either way, if you're stupid, you're gonna get hurt, you don't even need an animal to get hurt.

 

[mrramsey1969]

Of course, the mean animal was there to kill the girl. Or maybe they've just been feeding the thing for 20 minutes and then decide that going to sit in front of it while turning their back is a smart move.
Here's the footage
Is it still the animal that is responsible? My bet is no. There's no "luckily a man jumped in", there's "stupidly, they let her sit in front of the animal" (I won't go over the kid being smart enough to go and sit turning her back to some animal about 3 times her size).

I mean, my dog would do the same, and as a matter of fact has done something very similar. My cousin (age around 8 then) was eating with her hands and feeding the dog under the table. At some point she lets her hands full of food under the table with no intention of feeding the dog, so she gets a lick, and the teeth touch her hand (obviously). Since then my dog is a "dangerous animal that bites". I see a large parallel there, except that one animal is supposedly "domesticated" and the other is "wild". But either way, if you're stupid, you're gonna get hurt, you don't even need an animal to get hurt.

Yeah I saw that and soon after one of the headlines said "Girl Attacked by Sea Lion". More bad press for the wildlife on the stupidity of the human race. Like most "wild" animals, they are opportunistic feeders since they have no idea where their next meal is coming from. They will eat when ever there is food present. Soon the animal associates feeding with the humans. I can get the same response from the fish in my aquarium. I can hand feed them and they no longer fear my hand but if I put a hand in there with no food they will bite.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Only yesterday I saw a video on line that a seal/sea lion pulled a young girl from the pier to water. Luckily a man jumped in and brought the girl back unharmed.
You could argue that if the animal meant to harm her, she could be in big trouble.
I would keep my distance from any "wild" animal.

What the video didn't show was that the family had been tossing it chunks of bread. And you know what that white dress looks like to a hungry sea lion? A large chunk of bread. Lesson there ... don't feed wild animals. Sea lions are basically marine bears ... treat them accordingly.

That said, females and young are quite playful and will interact with divers quite safely. Yes, I have been "bitten" by sea lions ... it's how they play, even with each other. Although you can feel their teeth quite easily ... and they are powerful animals who might inadvertently damage gear ... they are not intending to harm you. If they were, they could easily cause serious damage. Last year I got "gang tackled" by several, who literally pushed me from a depth of about 8 feet back down to the bottom at about 55 feet (I was coming up from a dive). I got into a fetal position, protecting my camera, and let them play. After a few minutes of not moving, they decided I wasn't much fun and went away. If you try fending them off, they'll assume you want to play ... and they're like enthusiastic dogs when it comes to playing.

Big daddies are something else altogether ... when they show up, it's time to leave. The alpha bulls challenge each other for females by getting up in each other's face and blowing bubbles. In male sea lion, that translates into "I want your women" ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[drbill]

Yes, sea lions (and even harbor seals) are known to bite... both in play and in aggression. I remember when I was working on an eco-cruise liner diving at Los Islotes off La Paz, Mexico. One of our passengers had a sea lion jump on his back while he was snorkeling. I saw bits and pieces of his 3mm shortie fly off as the sea lion bit him. When I got to the surface, he was bleeding but laughing about it. Sea lions are also known to harbor a few diseases that can be transmitted to humans.

 

[Bubblesong]

Here is a baby seal investigating my fins with teeth. I have brought my fins up as a wall to fend seal off from investigating my face. The DRYSUIT diver with us was nervous they could acci-dental-ly, bite through his dry suit and flood it. We did not touch or try to bother seals, but they were interested in us.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Harbor seals are a whole different story. They're much smaller, and generally less intimidating. We have regular interactions with them at some of our popular local dive sites, particularly during the winter months when they tend to stay inside the more sheltered bays. Harbor seals can be fun to watch as they cavort around, bumping into the bottom, each other, and you. But the fun quickly wanes as they also stir up the bottom and often make it difficult to see anything ... then you just wish they'd go bother somebody else for a while.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)