A small Sea lion was attacked and eaten right in front of
some fishermen in Los Cabos yesterday.
According to Wesley Brough, a renowned Cabo surf fishing
guide, this unsightly incident happened on the Pacific side of Cabo just after
he and his friends had arrived by panga to try some spearfishing.
They spotted the Sea lion swimming in the vicinity of their
boat, and continued to get geared up to go in the water. Moments after two of
his friends had jumped in, they noticed something floating. Upon closer
inspection they found the Sea lion with the bottom-half of its body missing,
the attack happened so quickly that the poor animal wasn't killed immediately.
Wesley and the captain shouted for his friends to get out of
the water. As they watched the body floating past a shark hit it at top speed
and swallowed this half of the animal in one gulp. Wesley wasn't able to
identify the species of shark, but says it looked to be around 12ft long and
very big and fast; he suspects it was either a Tiger or Bull shark.
Sea lions are the natural prey species for these ocean going
predators and there is no suggestion that there is any danger to the public
from sharks around Los Cabos (…unless you count Time Share…Ed)
Only one shark attack has ever been recorded in the waters
around Los Cabos and that happened on July 26th 2008 when Ryan
Seacrest, a 33 year old male, was swimming and sustained an unprovoked attack.
It was not serious and was thought to be from a small shark. He made a full
recovery from minor puncture wounds to his foot.