When 22-year-old filmmaker Taiyo Masuda went out on an ocean kayaking adventure with his friends, he had no idea what he was about to capture on camera.
You never really know what you’re going to see when you’re out on the ocean, especially in a place like New Zealand, where the waters are teeming with life. About 8,000 different marine species have been found living in the oceans of New Zealand, and there are surely more that have yet to be discovered!
It would be a relatively unsurprising sight to see a sea lion or a seal while out on a causal boating adventure. They’re often spotted swimming or hunting in the water, or basking on rocks or the shores.
However, on this particular trip, these guys and gals were in for a very rare encounter with one of these carnivorous mammals on this day.
Sea lions may be adorable, but they also are ferocious hunters. They are quick underwater and have the sharp teeth of a carnivore to chomp through their prey. However, there are some meals that are more difficult to win over than others.
Fish are relatively easy meals for seals. Sure, they’re fast, but they aren’t particularly clever or tough to digest.
An octopus, however? That’s a different story.
Octopuses are incredibly intelligent animals, at least for creatures without backbones, that are able to escape their enclosures at aquariums and even solve simple puzzles. They learn solutions to obstacles, remember them (at least for the short term), and are able to replicate their successes based on that information. They are also very strong and have tough tissue that is difficult to bite through.
So, when a sea lion and an octopus get into a fight, it’s not going to be an easy one.
That’s exactly what Taiyo Masuda and his friends witnessed that day. In fact, one man, Kyle Mulinder, found himself right in the middle of the action.
The group of Go-Proers had seen one sea lion and an octopus duking it out under the water for a bit, but when the two came to the surface, the sea lion tried to use Masuda as a human meat tenderizer.
He got a huge face full of octopus as the sea lion whacked him in the face with the cephalopod. It all happened so fast, he could hardly register what was going on!
You can see the look on his face after it all went down. Pure shock!
It appears that this time, the octopus got away from the sea lion’s wrath. At least as he clung to Masuda’s kayak for dear life for a short period of time.
I wish I could say that no animals were harmed in the making of this video, but that’s just not how the circle of life works, folks! It’s every sea lion and octopus for himself. In this case, it seems it’s also every man for himself when it comes to getting in between a sea lion and his meal.
What do you think you would do if this ever happened to you? I don’t’ know if I’d feel lucky for such a unique experience, or totally scared out of my mind. Clearly, that seal was super hungry for a meal!
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