Surfing sea otter clambers onto board in B.C., prompting warning

A sea otter has been seen clambering onto a surfboard and following surfers off Vancouver Island, prompting reminders from Fisheries and Oceans Canada to avoid close interactions with the mammals.

Photos and videos on social media show the otter following a group of three surfers off Whiffen Spit in Sooke, B.C., about 40 kilometres west of Victoria on Saturday.

The otter is seen riding the swells among the surfers, clambering onto a surfboard with its rider and swimming after the group, despite their efforts to paddle away.

Paul Cottrell with Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Marine Mammal Response says the surfers did the right thing to try to avoid contact, since wild sea otters behave unpredictably and may carry diseases, and can be aggressive and bite if they feel threatened.

Cottrell says there’s a legal requirement to report any accidental interaction with wild sea mammals to ensure safety for all involved.

Photographer Doug Clement says the otter lingered around the surfers for more than an hour before leaving.

“I thought it was a seal at first,” Clement said. “The surfers, you can see, were like, ‘Get away from us! Don’t come near us!’

“You can see they’re trying to get away from it, he kept swimming towards them. And then when they’d stop, he’d sort of sit there about a foot or two away from them and float on his back — and just stare at them.

“Then when they started to move, he’d start to move, too.”

The situation is rare but not unique — a sea otter in California became notorious for chasing surfers and hijacking their boards off Santa Cruz in 2023.

Cottrell said Fisheries and Oceans Canada would monitor the situation in Sooke and could consider relocating the animal if “negative interactions” were reported.

“This is not common behaviour for a sea otter,” Cottrell said, noting that it may be the same animal that was reported trying to interact with paddleboarders in the same area in the fall.

“If it’s the same sea otter, which we believe it is … we’ll keep our eye out, and we’ll keep signage up just to notify people in the area to be aware and to avoid those interactions as much as they can.”

Clement said the animal may have been staying close to the surfboards to escape nearby predators such as sea lions.

“I’ve seen that with seals before, where they jump on the boats to get rid of the killer whales,” he said. “So that’s my first thought — maybe he was trying to seek refuge on the board because he kept trying to climb on.”

In another recent encounter with sea mammals on Vancouver Island, a sea lion lumbered onto Highway 4 from Kennedy Lake on Sunday, disrupting traffic before it was herded back to the lake by police and a Parks Canada warden.

In that case, Cottrell says everything was done correctly, with the authorities immediately notified to prevent vehicles from running into the sea lion and causing injuries on either end.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2024.

Chuck Chiang, The Canadian Press