Penelope Wilson
Penelope Wilson
June 24, 2020 ·  3 min read

Incredible Moment Seal Slaps Kayaker In The Face With Massive Octopus

Everyone’s done something they are not proud of to get others out of their spaces, right? This seal did what he had to do and no one’s going to judge him for it. 

In 2018, a kayaker, Kyle Mulinder, was the object of some pretty crazy sea rage when he was out rowing the waters surrounding New Zealand with his friends. Just off the coast of Kaikōura in the South Island, he got the shock of his life when a seal shot out of the water and slapped an octopus right across his face. [1]

We were just sitting out in the middle of the ocean and then this huge male seal appeared with an octopus and he was thrashing him about for ages,” Mulinder said to Australia’s Seven News. “I was like ‘mate, what just happened?’ It was weird because it happened so fast but I could feel all the hard parts of the octopus on my face.

Well, no one can make sense of the seal’s intent, but he either wanted to deal with a nuisance octopus or he was sending a clear message to the kayakers to exit his ocean. 

The fight didn’t end there

Immediately the octopus got slapped out of the water, his defense response kicked in and he readied the suckers on his tentacles. Each one of the powerfully muscular eight arms has about 240 suction cups on the underside. Octopuses are unnaturally strong and are said to snap the spines of sharks during sea brawls.

This particular disgruntled guy attached himself to the side of the boat. He probably figured that wherever he landed after his short flight, he wasn’t letting go without a fight. It took the joint efforts of Mulinder and his friends to get the octopus out and toss it back into the sea.

The whole thing was captured by Taiyo Masuda who was also paddling off the coast of Kaikoura. His GoPro Hero7 was attached to the side of the boat and luckily, he was at the right place at the right time.

Quite like dogs, seals are known to be intelligent animals that display curiosity, good coordination, and quick learning of tricks. Some seals have been recorded getting friendly and playing fast-paced fetch with snorkelers, and when they are not trying to get you out of their territory, they can be pretty nice.

It turns out, seals are even as smart as scientists. According to Bio Expedition: “It turns out that seals are smart enough to find fish. Just like humans, they have found a way of using sound-emitting sensors to locate their next meal. Tagging has helped scientists to study fish species. The studies look into the population of the fish, their longevity, and their migratory movements. However, it was found that the fish with tags that make a ‘pinging’ sound ended up being eaten by seals, compared to those with noiseless tags. This means that the seals were able to locate the tagged fish and prey on them.” [2]

Enjoy this video of one excited baby seal putting his energy to good use while training with NAVY seals. The video was posted on Instagram by the War Office Productions with the caption: “Show ’em how it’s done.”

References

  1. ‘Mate, what just happened?’ Seal slaps kayaker in the face with octopus.” The Guardian. Eleanor Ainge. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
  2. HOW INTELLIGENT ARE SEALS?Bio Expedition. Retrieved June 17, 2020.