A video showing two sea lions chasing away beachgoers that got too close to them on a San Diego beach has gone viral, with denizens of the internet sympathizing with the sea lions whose peace was disturbed by the intruding tourists.
The footage taken on Friday shows beach visitors scrambling to get out of the way of the sea lions near the rocks at La Jolla Cove in southern California before the semi-aquatic mammals took to the water, forcing swimmers to dodge out of their path. Charlianne Yeyna, who filmed the video, talked to NBC San Diego about the experience.
“The sea lions were sleeping and were just massive on the beach and I was just watching them. And this woman got really close to them, like four feet away, and was trying to take a photo of it up close, and it just woke up and started chasing everybody.”
According to Yeyna, there were plenty of signs on the beach telling visitors to give wildlife space and stay a safe distance away from the animals in their natural habitat.