Kayaker Kyle Mulinder received a special and unexpected slap in the face when a seal smacked him with a live octopus while he was out in the ocean. Thankfully, another paddler was testing the new GoPro Hero 7 camera at the time and was able to capture the sight.
Mulliner said he was paddling with several others at Kaikoura, New Zealand when the cheeky seal appeared out of nowhere and slapped him using a giant octopus.
Fellow kayaker Taiyo Masuda recorded and later posted the crazy video on Instagram.
Floating along with the kayaker group, the seal emerges from the water and flings the octopus at his friend Kyle.
In an interview for Yahoo7, Kyle said: “We were just sitting out in the middle of the ocean and then this huge male seal appeared with an octopus and he was thrashing him about for ages.”
Kyle added that the fight between the octopus and the seal continued beneath the water before the seal came back up and whipped the octopus right into his face.
He went on to add: “He thrashed it in mid fight and my face happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was like ‘mate, what just happened?’ It was weird because it happened so fast but I could feel all the hard parts of the octopus on my face like ‘dum dum dum’.”
According to associate professor at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland, Rochelle Constantine there is a simple explanation for this.
In her view, the seal was not intentionally trying to slap Mulinder, but he was likely just in the way. The seal was probably trying to rip the octopus’ tentacle off with the force of the throw, she said in an email to USA today.
“I have seen seals doing this before, it’s not an unusual sight but normally there isn’t a person in the way,” she wrote. “Often we see (seals) swallowing the tentacle at the surface like a large strand of spaghetti.”, Constantine said.
Often, seals repeat this action multiple times in order to rip off the tentacles one by one. The seals then proceed to eat the rest of the body, she believes.
Constantine added: “It’s a good meal, especially when they get a large octopus as shown in this footage,”
No matter what reason, Mulinder said it’s an experience he will probably never forget.
