Bizarre sea lion ‘avalanche’ captured on video in California harbor. See the odd sight

A videographer got the chance to capture an “avalanche” of sea lions in California.

Evan Brodsky, known as @Evanb_ocean on Instagram, has been a marine videographer for seven years and works with Monterey Bay Whale Watch, where he uses drones to capture different marine life.

Brodsky was in Monterey on Nov. 20 when he saw a crowd of sea lions “by chance,” he told McClatchy News in a phone interview.

“Eventually they all just started toppling onto each other and eventually into the harbor,” Brodsky said.

Brodsky posted video of the “sea lion avalanche” to Instagram on Nov. 20. It has over 56,000 views as of Dec. 2.

But the odd sight didn’t just happen once; it happened a few times, Brodsky said.

“I think something spooks them, it spooked one of them at the top and then that one starts freaking out and then all the others start toppling down,” Brodsky said. “It could’ve been anything, there’s people walking by in the video so maybe that’s what freaked them out.”

Brodsky said a lot of people find the sight to be something “really special,” but some boaters see sea lions as a species that has “destroyed the harbor.”

California sea lions are “very social on land,” and males “bark like dogs” to communicate with the other males and females, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

They are very “skittish” around humans and often run into the water at the mere smell of people, the NOAA said.

Brodsky attributes the massive crowding of sea lions to the red tide as the algae blossom stripped the bay of oxygen, causing anchovies, an animal sea lions eat, to seek oxygen in the harbor, he said.

“Even when oxygen levels start to regulate, you’ll always see sea lions in that area but not as many,” he said. “People think they’re lazy because they always hang out during the day but they’re really resting because they hunt all night.”

Monterey is about a 120-mile drive southeast of San Francisco.

This story was originally published December 2, 2024 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Bizarre sea lion ‘avalanche’ captured on video in California harbor. See the odd sight."