When a teen girl felt an animal bite her during her swim test for the cadet lifeguard program in Long Beach, California, she worried that she was being attacked by a shark. Onlookers on the beach noticed something that looked like a fin emerge from the water, leading them to suspect that they were witnessing a shark attack. Instead, it was actually a sea lion that attacked 15-year-old Phoebe Beltran.
She has several bites and scratches as a result of the encounter. Luckily, she was not severely injured. Speaking to KTLA, Phoebe described what she was thinking during the scary experience. “All I’m thinking is, ‘Please, don’t be a shark. Please, don’t take off my arm and please, don’t kill me,'” the teen told the news outlet.
Phoebe’s mom, Bibi Beltran, was also on the beach and thought her daughter was being attacked by a shark. “I saw something come up, like a fin, and somebody yelled, ‘Shark,’” she told the news outlet. When she got closer, she realized it was her daughter out in the water with the animal, and she “broke down.”
Phoebe was rescued by lifeguards and taken to the emergency room. She is currently recovering from her injuries. In spite of the sea lion attack, she still plans to complete the lifeguard cadet program once she recovers.
Sea lions are not typically aggressive toward humans, but a toxic algae is poisoning sea lions in California, SF Gate reported. Michael Milstein, a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told the publication that the algae can cause neurological illness in marine animals and make larger animals “dangerous and unpredictable.”
