A teenage trainee lifeguard thought she was about to be killed by a shark as she completed a swim test — only to find out she was the victim of a rare attack by a sea lion.
Phoebe Beltran, 15, was just 25 feet from the shore in Long Beach on a 1,000-yard swim for a cadet lifeguard qualification on March 30 when she was suddenly pulled under the water.
“Out of nowhere, I feel something biting my arm,” she told KTLA.
“I saw a shadow of it, and all I’m thinking is, ‘Please, don’t be a shark. Please, don’t take off my arm, and please, don’t kill me,” she recalled.
“The first bite — I went under, and I just see the shadow, but I couldn’t make out what it was,” she told NBC California of the March 30 ordeal. “As I came up, I was way too scared to face it head-on. I’m screaming this way as it’s biting me over here and it finally let go.”
The teen was not alone in not realizing she was actually being bitten by a sea lion — which can grow to 700 pounds — with her mother, Bibi Beltran, among those watching helplessly from the shore.
“I saw something come up, like a fin, and somebody yelled, ‘Shark,’” the mom told KTLA. “We all rushed to the water and when I realized it was my daughter … that’s when I broke down.”
While sea lions can grow to six feet and weigh 700 pounds, they rarely attack humans.
“In my 25 years of service, I’ve never heard of something like this happen before,” Gonzalo Medina of the Long Beach Fire Department told NBC Los Angeles.
However, sea lions can lash out if feeling threatened. And some experts fear the marine mammals are becoming increasingly violent from being poisoned by toxic algae blooms.
“Certainly a side effect of the acid is potentially aggressive behavior, but there’s no way to tell,” Medina said.
Either way, the teen’s mom is relieved.
“It’s just a scary thought. She could’ve been pulled under. I thought the worst,” Bibi Beltran said.
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