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Teen Describes Terrifying Sea Lion Attack At Beach In CA

REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger

Katie Jerkovich Entertainment Reporter
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A teen has lived to share the terrifying details after being attacked by a sea lion in Pismo Beach, California while she was just hanging out in the water.

“I was at the water, I was just playing around, jumping — having fun,”13-year-old Megan Pagnini told “Good Morning America” in an interview that aired Friday. “And I was taking silly pictures, when all of a sudden, it [sea lion] came out of nowhere and bit my leg.”(RELATED: Report: Feds Are Wasting Billions Protecting ‘Endangered’ Animals That Are Just Fine)

Her friend was there and captured the whole thing on video which can be seen here, including the injury to her leg. (RELATED: Oregon Officials Want To Bag And Tag Protected Sea Lions To Keep Them From Driving Protected Fish Extinct)

“I thought they were just so cute and little and mostly just like little like beans that were just swimming around being cute,” she added. “I thought they were just the most adorable little things. They’re just the puppies of the sea.”

Pagnini continued, “And now I think they’re really scary. I don’t ever want to get near one or see one ever again.”

The teen also talked about how she couldn’t believe it was happening and just screamed to “get help.”

“I just thought to just scream and try to get help because I didn’t even know what was happening,” Pagnini explained. “My brain couldn’t really process it.”

Authorities said that a sea lion attack on a human was “very unusual” and the attack on the young girl was “a complete anomoly,”

“It’s very unusual to have a sea lion attack on a human,” Todd Tognazzini, California Department of Fish and Wildlife said. “There are many thousands of surfers that use the water every day in California; there are many people who go into the water and this type of event is extremely unusual.”

“We knew that the girl had been transported to the hospital, so our concern was whether the animal was gonna cause harm to someone else,” he added. “Our officer spotted what he believed to be the correct animal, it was behaving very strange, it actually exited the water and was in a state of stupor. It was biting sticks along the beach and actually worked its way up to a lifeguard tower on the beach, and its metal, and it bit the base of the lifeguard tower.”

Tognazzini continued, “There was nothing this young lady could have done to stop this from happening.”

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