SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — A friendly seal has captured the hearts of surfers at Tourmaline Surf Park in La Jolla.
The seal, which surfers have nicknamed Sammy, showed up in the area about three weeks ago. Since then, Sammy been captured repeatedly on drone video.
In some videos, the seal is seen jumping on people's surfboards, sometimes taking a nap, and other times riding the waves with the surfers.
Surfer Jennie Kim said, “He was just hopping off and on somebody’s board. He eventually got onto mine.”
Ed Hartel, whose drone captured the footage, told ABC 10News, “I just stumbled across … ‘Hey, wow, it's on Jennie's board, cool.’ I'm stoked I can capture this moment for her.”
Longtime surfers said they've given the seal its space, letting it stay on their boards without touching it and letting it relax.
The seal has continued showing up, almost daily, but people are asked to stay away from it, not take selfies with it, and only interact if it swims to you.
The surfers say SeaWorld San Diego was called out and the team deemed the seal healthy and let it go back to the water.
ABC 10News reached out to Sea World to confirm that information, but after hours and at the time of publishing this article, they have not responded.
