Sea lion charges cold plungers on Vancouver Island

Video captures the moment a curious sea lion shocks cold plungers as it darts towards them in Vancouver Island waters.

The ice-cold water wasn’t the only shock for a pair of Vancouver Island swimmers Monday.

Ennio Titarenko and Andrew Wierzbicki were in the ocean at sunrise for their usual cold plunge in Esquimalt Lagoon when they received a sudden surprise visit from a large sea lion.

The moment the marine mammal lunged toward them was caught on camera, as the pair were filming a podcast episode at the time.

“We hopped in for the cold dip and proceed with talking about men’s mental health for about five minutes, and then about at the fifth minute mark the sea lion just pops up,” Titarenko recounted to CTV News.

He said the sea lion hung out about 15 to 20 feet away for a minute before leaping toward them with a splash.

“He did a little dip and then, boom, just kind of charged us a little bit and then at that point it was very clear he didn’t want us in the water anymore so we left very promptly,” Titarenko said.

The two men had very different reactions to the encounter.

“You have a fight or flight, that was a flight for sure,” Wierzbicki said, describing how he flailed in the water to get away and threw off his water shoes.

“I was scared honestly. It’s a big animal and I’m in his environment. I ain’t fighting a sea lion there’s no way that’s gonna happen,” he said.

Titarenko claims he was more composed.

“I wasn’t really phased, I’ve spent a ton of time around sea lions,” he said. “I knew that he was probably just either curious or wanted to show us who’s boss, but I had no fear that he was actually going to hurt us or bite us or anything.”

An encounter like that is an “incredibly rare event,” according to Dr. Anna Hall, marine zoologist with Sea View Marine Science, who said she was “astonished” to see the video.

The mammal, likely a male California sea lion—which can reach about 900 pounds—could have been acting out of curiosity or playfulness, she said.

“I would have been very surprised if it had a level of aggression to it because these animals typically are not aggressive to people,” Hall told CTV News. “Everybody has a bad day, sea lions included, maybe it was a little on the grumpy side or maybe it was a little on the playful side.”

She said the cold plungers did the right thing by backing away and giving the animal space.

Both Titarenko and Wierzbicki said they have no plans to stop diving into the frigid ocean, as they believe it provides an exhilarating start to the day along with health benefits such as reducing muscle soreness and inflammation.

Though they hope the sea lion scare was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

“I don’t want that happening every Monday I’ll tell you that,” Titarenko said.

With files from CTV News Vancouver Island’s Yvonne Raymond